Chairperson, hon members, ladies and gentlemen, fellow South Africans, the ANC supports the Merchant Shipping (Safe Containers Convention) Bill, Bill 31 of 2010.
We value the lives of people who work in the marine industry to load and offload containers used in the shipping of goods from our country to other countries and from other countries to South Africa. We believe that South Africa has a moral obligation to protect the maritime workforce from injuries and accidental deaths. South Africa has been a contracting party to the International Convention for Safe Containers since its accession in June 1982. However, failure to implement the International Convention for Safe Containers Act of 1985 has resulted in South Africa not meeting its obligation as a contracting party.
The convention was adopted on 2 December 1972 and entered into force on 6 September 1977. There are currently 65 contracting parties to the convention. The convention has two principal objectives. The first is to maintain a high level of safety of human life in the transport and handling of containers, by providing generally acceptable tests, procedures and related strength requirements which have proven adequate over the years. Secondly, it is to facilitate the international transport of containers by providing uniform safety regulations that are equally applicable to all modes of surface transport.
What do we gain as a country by applying the norms and standards of the convention? First, we save lives and prevent accidents, which is positive for human resources and productivity. Second, we broaden our trading potential as a country by having in place internationally recognised high safety standards that give other countries the confidence and assurance that the lives of their workforce will not be put in danger by South Africa.
We received written submissions from Transnet, Samsa and one member of the public and we discussed these submissions thoroughly. The Department of Transport and Samsa, a transport agency responsible for the administration and enforcement of the proposed measures, share a common view on all issues.
There were two issues on which the DA and the ANC had different views. The first issue related to clause 31, where an explanation is given that Prince Edward Islands are part of the Republic of South Africa and therefore the convention applies to Prince Edward Islands. The DA was of the view that clause 31 caused confusion since Prince Edward Islands were part of South Africa and therefore there was no need to mention specifically in the Bill that it also applied to Prince Edward Islands.
The ANC was of the view that not everybody knew that Prince Edward Islands were part of South Africa, because Prince Edward Islands only became part of South Africa through Act 43 of 1948 and not everybody was aware of the provisions of that Act. The ANC also felt that it was necessary for the international community to understand that Prince Edward Islands were part of the Republic of South Africa. And therefore the ANC said this clause needed to remain in the Bill to clarify that issue.
Both the state law adviser and the parliamentary legal adviser supported the view of the ANC and clause 31 remains part of the Bill. The DA lost the first round with a knockout.
The DA wanted the inclusion in the Bill of a clause that subjected South Africa to the same standards of safety for containers used to transport goods within South Africa, so as to maintain these standards. What the DA was arguing was that we needed to put into this Bill a clause that said that the convention standards had to apply to goods transported from Durban to the Prince Edward Islands or from the Durban airport to the port in Cape Town. We think that they were confusing issues because we were dealing with international trade between South Africa and other countries, not trade within South Africa.
The ANC agreed with the notion in principle. However, we argued that this Bill is about an international convention and deals with containers going from one country to another. Therefore such a clause would cause confusion. However, the ANC suggested that the Department of Transport assess the possibility of drafting a Bill to introduce the same safety standards for containers used to transport goods within South Africa. The portfolio committee endorsed the ANC's suggestion on this issue. So the second round was a draw between the ANC and the DA.
The last issue raised by the DA was about the safety of the contents of the container and the DA wanted a clause that dealt with that. We spent almost two hours debating this issue, even when two members representing the DA were no longer supportive of the view of the DA and only one member was still adamant that we needed to take that route.
The ANC argued that there was an existing Act that addressed that, and that Act was currently used by Samsa to inspect the safety of the contents in the container. Therefore there was no need to include a clause that dealt with the safety of the contents because we were focusing on the container, the handlers of the container, the shape of the container and also the equipment that is used to handle the containers.
Samsa, the state law advisers and the parliamentary legal advisers supported the view of the ANC. The DA lost the third round with a technical knockout. All members of the portfolio committee voted in favour of the Bill. The ANC supports the Bill. Thank you. [Applause.]