Vessel RS Africana still raising concerns
JUST when will SA’s premier but ageing fisheries research vessel, the RS Africana, sail again?
That question is being asked after the crippled vessel failed to complete a calibration exercise with its replacement for an important fisheries survey last month, and after the SA Navy told the fisheries department that it would also not be ready for another critically important survey this month.
The navy had been managing SA’s fisheries research and patrol fleet since last April when the maintenance contract between the Department of Agriculture, Forestry & Fisheries (DAFF) and private marine company Smit Amandla expired, but the Africana in particular has had a troubled stay at Simon’s Town.
Yesterday, Rear Admiral JG “Bravo” Mhlana told the Cape Argus he’d sent a detailed report on the Africana to DAFF. However, DAFF spokesman Lionel Adendorf said a meeting to discuss the ship had been scheduled for today and he could only comment after that.
Shaheen Moolla, a former senior official in the fisheries department and now an industry consultant, posted a highly critical blog this week, accusing the navy of a “mega stuff-up of unimaginable proportions for which they do not have the slightest solution” when seawater had been pumped into the Africana’s fuel tanks.
“By late November, the SA pelagic industry had had enough of the joint DAFF and naval incompetence and got a private vessel ready to conduct the research cruise which was eventually successfully completed.
“Subsequently, a one-day calibration exercise between the industry vessel and the Africana was planned to take place in False Bay in December. This too failed to materialise as the Africana broke down twice… “he said.
The navy announced in early November that some critically-important equipment was defective when the fisheries fleet was transferred to it and the Africana in particular had been in a “very poor state” by naval standards, Mhlana said.
But Moolla challenged this, asking why the navy had not immediately objected and refused to accept it.