Refuelling ‘oil rush’ roiled by allegations
The acting head of the South African Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) is under fire for allegedly improperly meddling in a lucrative offshore ship refuelling deal.
However, it is unclear whether Sobantu Tilayi — replaced last week as head of Samsa — is a casualty of a fiercely contested “oil rush” involving three of the world’s biggest commodity trading companies.
Tilayi’s demotion from acting CEO to operations head coincides with audits of licensees in SA’s new offshore bunkering business, in which barges refuel ships in Algoa Bay. The regulator has input into who gets licences.
Tilayi was involved in setting up the industry in the Eastern Cape but along the way has locked horns with powerful figures in the public and private sectors.
His demotion also coincides with a court application to compel transport minister Fikile Mbalula and the Samsa board to act against him for a range of alleged failings.
Documents and correspondence submitted to the Pretoria high court detail concerns about Tilayi’s conduct during his tenure at Samsa and in his previous job at the Transnet National Ports Authority. The documents include copies of correspondence between Tilayi and offshore bunkering stakeholders.
Some of the correspondence details Tilayi’s efforts to assist business person Thami Gcaba secure a stake in the bunkering business by partnering with a consortium now called South African Marine Fuels (SAMF), which has petroleum company Addax as a technical partner. Gcaba fell out with the consortium and has since withdrawn.
Tilayi has declined to comment while the matter is before court. But in a memo to the Samsa board he said intervention in the offshore bunkering deals aimed to ensure fair play and prevent deals benefiting only a select few. He said Gcaba had been sidelined despite being a key figure in one of the bunkering deals.
Tilayi has previously clashed with other offshore bunkering licensees, including powerful global shipping company Aegean. Their conflict was also over local beneficiaries.
Aegean has since been bought out by an international company, which now runs the bunkering business as Minerva. The company this week said it is “committed to the South African maritime industry and to Port Elizabeth, operating a locally flagged vessel on which we train South African cadets and supporting initiatives that make a positive impact on the local community”.
The court application against Samsa and Mbalula was made by the Eastern Cape branch of nonprofit group Disabled People SA, which said its aim is to clean up the Eastern Cape industry.
DPSA national executive council member Looks Matoto said the organisation hopes to be involved in the industry as a local partner “but only once this thing gets cleaned up”.
Some maritime sources said Tilayi has become collateral damage in a power struggle between Samsa, which enjoys relative autonomy, and its parent transport department. The new Samsa board replaced Tilayi with a relatively unknown director from the department, Tsepiso Mashiloane.
However, other well-placed sources in the bunkering industry said there was unhappiness about Samsa’s “over-reach” under Tilayi, who had wanted too much control over licensees and their partners.
In his memo, Tilayi said his actions were solely aimed at maximising local benefit.
In particular, he has pushed for the involvement of the Coega Development Corporation (CDC), which was left out of the Aegean deal but later accommodated in the SAMF deal.
He said he was nonplussed as to why the DPSA had raised concerns about “industry capture” in relation to his discussions with SAMF.
“They [SAMF] have never raised any of the issues which are being raised in this complaint with Samsa and the reason they would not is because they are fully aware of what is the context to these discussions,” he said.
“Unfortunately, it does happen that people resort to smearing campaigns and other underhanded means to achieve what they could not via an objective process.”
Questions have also been raised about Samsa’s third licensee involving a local firm, Heron Marine, 51% owned by a joint venture company co-owned by global commodity trading company Trafigura. Trafigura was previously blocked from bunkering operations in SA due to concerns about its global track record.
Heron Marine this week confirmed it was issued an offshore bunkering licence in 2019 to operate off the coast of Ngqura.
CDC and SAMF declined to comment on the concerns raised by the DPSA. SAMF MD Siyamthanda Maya said the company started operations in May 2018 when its bunkering licence was approved. CDC became a shareholder in August 2020.
Samsa declined to answer specific queries but confirmed it had received the court application.
“We are taking legal advice and applying our minds to the matter,” the regulator said. It would not confirm whether the appointment of a new acting CEO related to the court application or allegations against Tilayi.
Gcaba confirmed he was no longer involved with SAMF but insisted Tilayi had acted honourably by trying to intervene on his behalf. “As BEE shareholders, the government has to protect us — we rely on them. When they see there is foul play they need to say something,” he said.
A well-placed industry source said the infighting around bunkering is based on unrealistic expectations. “Everybody thought they would make a million bucks overnight. It is just not like that.”