Dry-dock mix-up leaves ship stranded

A MIX-UP at Cape Town’s main harbour dry dock this week left a 67m ship perched on the wrong blocks, causing damage and prompting a probe by harbour operator Transnet.

Global ship repair company EBH said dry-dock workers appeared to have “misinterpreted designs” for dry-docking the supply vessel Go Regulus.

They said the blocks used to support the ship damaged the ship’s hull, but the matter was being resolved with the ports authority “in the spirit of mutual co-operation”.

EBH South Africa shipyard manager Deon Chetty said: “The Go Regulus, a vessel for which EBH SA has been contracted to perform a periodic survey by owners Atlas, has sustained limited damage to the hull.

“This was due to the inadvertent misinterpretation of drawings submitted. However, in the spirit of its lengthy association — as well as co-operation and goodwill — EBH SA is working closely with the Transnet National Ports Authority to resolve the matter as speedily as possible.”

Unconfirmed reports suggest another ship was also affected — because the docking designs were accidentally swapped.

A Cape Town ship repair source, who feared victimisation should he go on the record, said the incident highlighted infrastructural chaos at South Africa’s commercial ports, the dry docks in particular.

He claimed only one of three pumps was working at the Sturrock dock, which handles most of the port’s ship repairs. In addition, only one of the caisson gates was working.

Delays in repairing port facilities are driving away ship repair business at a time when the industry is bleeding jobs, stakeholders say.

“The big problem is that there are no skills,” said the source. “They have a problem and somewhere along the line somebody is going to get seriously hurt.”

The problem is that there are no skills . . . somewhere along the line somebody is going to get seriously hurt

TNPA, which did not respond to Sunday Times questions, has previously highlighted massive reinvestment in port infrastructure under Operation Phakisa, a national economic development programme of which the “blue economy” is a flagship project.

In August, TNPA confirmed repairs to the Sturrock dry dock’s water circulation pumps, which were undergoing commissioning tests at the time. “Further repairs are scheduled at the facility. Ten cranes for ship repair are being replaced at a cost of R365-million,” it said.