The Department of Transport hosted the conference in Cape Town, Protea Hotel Fire which commenced on 20–22 April 2022. The conference was aimed at reviewing the Comprehensive Maritime Transport Policy (CMTP) focusing on its overall implementation, outcomes, and areas for improvement and planning for challenges faced in the maritime industry.

The 2022 CMPT Mid-term policy review hybrid conference was attended by esteemed industry guests such as Ministers, industry captains, policy developers, research institutions and academia, senior government and industry representatives, private sector, and non-governmental organizations across the sector, attended the conference. The conference was officiated by Transport Minister, Fikile Mbalula, highlighting the significance of the oceans economy and its contribution to the economy and the way forward in strengthening the oceans economy.

Echoing the words of the minister, “Recognizing our contribution to the counter’s efforts towards realizing inclusive growth, we have prioritized the acceleration of interventions that will unlock the potential of the oceans economy and drive transformation in an aggressive way among these establishments of national shipping career as a means of building the strategic national shipping capacity and capability.”

In her opening remarks, Ms. Claire Gomes, Planning and Communications Executive at AMSOL, as she facilitated the evening session, labelled the industry as an “Innovative and driven industry” and further emphasized the need for government and private sectors to fund non-governmental organisations that do a lot of work within the limited budgetary constraints emphasizing the importance of these organizations and need to fund them so that the work that they do does not go unnoticed.

In alignment with the CMTP 2022 theme: Benefiting from the maritime value chain, Ms. Gwamanda introduced EMC’s boatbuilding initiative that is being implemented in Kwa-Zulu Natal, EThekwini Municipality. Representing EMC was Managing Director, Zenzile Gwamanda who honoured her invitation as a guest speaker at the conference on 20 April 2022 to launch EMC’s Youth Boatbuilding Project that will be used to launch the DOT’s 2022 theme: “Benefiting from the Maritime Value Chain”

In her presentation, Ms. Gwamanda’s highlighted the background of the project within the EThekwini Municipality including the project’s intended outcome. She further elaborated on how EMC projects are structured to align with government policies such as United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), Operation Phakisa, and National Policies.

Tackling the issue of the high rates of unemployed graduates in the country, Ms. Gwamanda emphasised the importance of collaboration and moulding the skills of the graduates while on the quest to seek employment. Through partnerships and collaborations, EMC was able to secure partnerships to help their beneficiaries continue building the boat.

Ms. Gwamanda stated, “We are going to be introducing them to entrepreneurship courses because the aim is to get them to become entrepreneurs and create employment in the future”.