Dear Valued Stakeholder,
It gives me great pleasure to once again engage with you, significant stakeholders This newsletter edition contains news about events that happened during the course of the past three months.
Throughout South Africa, several initiatives and activities were planned from the festive season coming into January. From the best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of your families all wrapped up in each other’s presence. Some were focusing on encouraging one to pursue their goals as we commenced the new year.
We began the year with encouraging news when we learned about the resurgent international interest in South Africa’s maritime sector and giving hope to the country’s aspirations of becoming a big player on the international stage, incredibly promising thanks to the steady increase of local seafarer recruitment. In an effort to maximize the opportunities that are within the Blue Economy the maritime sector including encouraging the recruitment of South African seafarers by international shipping companies, EMC board chairman Mr. Hans Modipane attended the CrewConnect conference where he was a panel speaker. The chairman attended the conference with a mandate to establish collaborative partnerships with international crewing agencies/companies for the enhancement of South African seafarer/crew placement.
The now exceptional demand for South African Officers and Cadets follows years of advocacy and positioning via the SA National Seafarer Development Programme, organisations like SAIMI, and the EThekwini Maritime Cluster. This alone demonstrates South Africa’s capacity to create skilled seafarers while also keeping us linked to the rest of the world.
As the maritime industry we are excited to see the cruise industry back to full operation after a long layback caused by Covid-19. This was apparent when on 03/04/2023 the city led by Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda welcomed the arrival of the ocean liner Queen Marry to the Port of Durban. The last time the liner visited the city was during the pandemic in 2023. The Queen Mary’s arrival demonstrates that the Durban cruise tourism industry is back where it belongs. Knowing that the National Department of Tourism has started a cruise tourism maximization plan adds to the delight.
With this newsletter, we aim to cover all significant industry events in our newsletters, including all additional EMC projects that have been launched over the preceding month. We hope you will like reading this issue and find it fascinating.
Your feedback on any of our stories would be highly appreciated.
Ms. Zenzile Gwamanda – EMC Managing Director