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Thousands of South African seafarers who faced being axed from the International Maritime Organistion's "white list", can breathe easy again after the organisation agreed to shelve changes to the list for the next two years.
This means the 5 000 South African-trained seafarers and South African flagged ships can continue to work in international shipping.
The IMO's backtracking occurred during a recent meeting of the organisation where several of the 80 countries that stood to be removed from the white list – including major maritime nations like the Philippines, the Netherlands and the UK – raised serious concerns about the issue.
Sobantu Tilayi, acting CEO of the SA Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa), told Fin24 on Monday that the IMO had conceded that the publishing of the white list had not followed due process.
'Diplomatic boo-boo'
"There were 80 countries that were very upset. They (IMO) made a diplomatic boo-boo; a big one, in fact," Tilayi said.
"There were many countries lamenting the process but at least now after the meeting we have a road map that is clear on how the process ought to be done.
"The white list is still there, but this process pushes the delisting two years away, so we will have time to comply and put something robust in place, as the IMO requires."
The prospect of being axed from the white list emerged from amendments to the IMO's International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STWC) that sets the minimum qualification standards for masters, officers and watch personnel on seagoing merchant ships.
This STCW training is mandatory and no seafarers can work in international shipping unless they are trained in the convention.
The convention was updated in 2010, and all signatories – in effect, all maritime nations – had to submit a report to the IMO to show that their training for seafarers met the new standards.
Samsa, as the body responsible for South Africa's compliance with maritime conventions, had submitted reports to the IMO, but none were accepted.
Some of the problems the IMO had were with how South African seafarers' training institutions and courses were accredited and how competency was measured.
Samsa set about tackling the matter, roping in experts from maritime bodies, and hoped to have the new report with the IMO by March next year, well in time for South Africa's next audit in March 2022.
Panic
But then, in February, the IMO had issued a circular expressing its intention to remove from the register, or "white list", all those countries that did not comply with the amendments to the STCW convention. South Africa was one of 80 countries that stood to be axed.
"This caused panic," Tilayi said.
However, at the recent IMO meeting, where nations concerned put their case, it was concluded that the drawing up of the list of countries for deslisting from the STWC's white list had not followed due process.
"The IMO then agreed to withdraw the list of affected countries and to embark on a process that is fair and transparent over the next year or two," Tilayi said.
This meant that the list would no longer be presented to the IMO Maritime Safety Committee in June.
"So South Africa is no longer facing a threat of being delisted from the white list."
Instead the Maritime Safety Committee would issue "proper terms of reference" for the sub-committee on Human Element, Training and Watchkeeping (HTW) on how updating the white list should be done, Tilayi said.
"When there is agreement as to how the updating of the white list should be done, then the process will start in earnest," he said.
This would be two years from now. South Africa – and the other 80 countries that stood to be axed – would stay on the white list at least until 2021.
Work to be done
But Tilayi said there was still work to be done to ensure South Africa complied with the amendments – however, at least now Samsa had breathing space.
Samsa had enlisted the services of an international expert, retired from the IMO, to review the work they had already done and to advise them further.
Tilayi apologised to the maritime industry for the panic the delisting prospect had caused.
"We came under a lot of pressure from some quarters of our stakeholders – justifiably so – but the IMO acknowledged that things might have been managed differently."
Fin24 asked the IMO to comment, but had not received a reply at the time of publication.
