Building ships . . . and dreams
During apartheid jobs in the shipyard industry was initially reserved for white South Africans but in the early 1970s when white job reservation faded out, people of colour grabbed onto opportunities to apply as apprentices. JANINE MOODLEY speaks to shipbuilders who share their experience and history of working in the largest shipbuilding company in the country, the SA Shipyards.
PRODUCING hundreds of vessels a year, South Africa’s shipbuilding industry has, arguably, some of the most experienced and trained shipbuilders on the continent.
According to Gregory Delpaul, the general manager of Southern African Shipyards (SAS) – Africa’s leading commercial, naval shipbuilding and ship repair company – it takes hard work, dedication and intricate skill to be a shipbuilder.
Located in Durban’s Bayhead area, close to the Salisbury Island Naval base, SAS has between 200 and 400 employees. It is a shipyard which was purpose-built for the envisioned naval building programme.
Delpaul, who was one of the earliest men of colour to enter the industry, has been working at the firm for the past 45 years.
Speaking about what it takes to be a shipbuilder, he said: “You have to have an innate passion for this type of job. You must be willing to put in the time and effort to get the work done.
“Sometimes I would find myself at work every day of the week. But I never saw my job as a task that needed to be completed. It is a passion. And passion is something one needs to have in this industry.”
Delpaul started at the company as a lofts man and quickly worked his way up the corporate ladder to be a supervisor, then a superintendent and finally general manager. He now has his own office and primarily sits with senior staff of the business.
Delpaul said entering the industry was near impossible at first, due to apartheid, but in the early 1970s the company began accepting coloured employees as boilermaker apprentices. He said Indians were only allowed in later on.
“They had just started to let coloureds in the Bayhead area, but no Indians were allowed in the industry. At the time, there was something called job reservation, where only white people were allowed to do a particular job. But then coloureds were accepted as apprentices. As the first lot of people came in, the industry just exploded. Coloureds began flooding in as boilermakers, welders and fitters. We basically took over the trade.”
But the yard slowly moved its first lot of Indian people into their complement and since the advent of democracy, more opportunities opened up for previously disadvantaged communities.
Employees
The company, which changed hands three times, is now 60% black-owned and 12% owned by its employees. Its CEO is Prasheen Maharaj.
Delpaul said his biggest task at the moment was making sure there was always “work in the shop”.
“One of the challenges we face is to find work, which is just scarce.
“The South African market is basically flat and we have to look internationally.
“That’s what we’ve done for the last two or three years.”
SAS’ R1.4 billion contract to build nine harbour tugs for Transnet in 2014 is nearing completion and is expected to be completed in August.
Next on their list is the order for the hydrographic survey vessel for the navy, codenamed Project Hotel.
The project was a fiercely contested contract with expressions of interest and the involvement of a number of big names in international shipbuilding. The government however made it clear that stateowned enterprises, including the navy and Transnet, should buy or build locally where possible, and this came to be applied to Project Hotel as well.
“It is probably one of the most complex vessels that has ever been built in this country. This is a vessel that scans the ocean floor. It has all the equipment to scan the ocean floor for mapping in the shipping industry. We chart the whole of the southern hemisphere. This is one of our commitments to the international community.”
Armscor awarded the contract to SAS, who has partnered with an established European specialist shipbuilder, the Norwegian/Italian shipyard of Vard.
Vard has nine shipyards around the world, including five in its native Norway. It previously designed two hydrographic survey ships for the Royal Navy.
The vessel to be built in Durban is said to be an evolution from earlier vessels, but has been specifically tailored to South Africa’s unique requirements as specified by Armscor and designed to incorporate the latest hydrographic and oceanographic sensor suite.
It is believed the ice strengthened vessel will be 95m in length with a width of 16.8m and about 7 800 kW of propulsion power, a shafted, controllable-pitch propeller, and a maximum speed of 18 knots.
The vessel will have a 10 000 nautical mile range with 44 days endurance and will be manned by a total crew of 120 persons, comprising ships’ crew and scientists.
The new vessel will replace the existing hydrographic survey vessel, SAS PROTEA (A324), which has provided reliable service since 1972.
The contract is likely to run for about four years.