All-black shipowners ready to sail
TWO KwaZulu-Natal businessmen have realised a lifelong ambition by becoming the first black ship-owners in South Africa.
Durand Naidoo and Thuso Mhlambi, both 33, are the owners of Linsen Nambi, a company they started in 2012 and which made local maritime history when they bought Grindrod’s Unicorn Bunker Services earlier this year.
With their female empowerment partners, Women in Oil and Energy (Woesa), they became the role model for the government’s initiative to unlock transformation in the maritime and liquid fuels industries.
According to Naidoo, Linsen Nambi is a 100% black-owned shipping company with highly skilled maritime professionals, strong customer relationships and owns its own ships.
“Therefore, we are well placed for strategic acquisitions and organic growth to develop our infrastructure further.”
He said the deal took a “concerted effort” from the private sector (Grindrod), the government (Industrial Development Corporation) and oil majors (BP, Engen and Chevron).
“It is unbelievable it took this long, but is a first for the recently legislated Combined Maritime Transport Policy, which calls for black ownership in shipping,” he said.
Mhlambi said there was a great need for the private sector and the funding institutions to “better align themselves with the government’s development plans to unlock more deals like ours”. “I would like to see the private sector opening up this space to new entrants, something that will facilitate the creation of employment.”
Naidoo and Mhlambi said they set a goal to become the leading African shipping company with a global presence.
Since its establishment six years ago, the company has bought three bunker vessels in Durban and Cape Town, and supply fuel to vessels.
Mhlambi said they were proud of their transformation successes, as “seven out of 12 masters are black, all 12 chief officers and all 12 chief engineers in the company are black”.
The story of the inception of their company is one of a friendship that goes back to 1996 when they were both 10 years old and in Grade 4 at Montclair Senior Primary School in Durban.
“We became instant friends. Thuso was, and still is, the funniest person I’ve ever met,” said Naidoo.
Naidoo also has a diploma in marine surveying from Lloyd’s Maritime Academy through the North Kent College. He joined Safmarine as a graduate and gained invaluable experience as he moved within the industry, rotating through finance, exports and imports.
Mhlambi obtained his BComm Honours in accounting at the University of KwaZuluNatal before completing his articles at KPMG. Their vision is sweeping and includes the beneficiation of South Africa’s long coastline.
“The oceans can feed us and provide us with a livelihood, yet it remains locked with high barriers of entry for new entrants to participate.
“South Africa suffers from a high unemployment rate, yet most black people have never considered working at sea, aboard vessels, because most of these positions are not advertised in South Africa,” Naidoo said.
He said efforts are afoot to change this and the government has launched initiatives, including Operation Phakisa, to kick-start the oceans economy.
It is estimated that the oceans can contribute R177 billion to the South African gross domestic product.
The men call their partnership with the women-owned Woesa “amazing”.
“We selected Woesa as our partner on this deal because like ourselves, as black youth, black women have been marginalised in the South African economy. Therefore, it was easy to sell them on the vision of reforming a sector that has been slow to change,” Mhlambi said.