Well, hon Chairperson, here I stand and I haven't had a technical knockout. I think the confusion is really with the ANC because what I am trying to say is this: and I hope the Minister and Deputy Minister will listen to my argument: You cannot divorce a container from its movement, as the chairman of our committee has just said. They have to be lifted, stacked and put into a vessel. If that thing is not weighed, and we do not know whether one contains gold and the other one feathers, you could end up with a vessel going out of our port and creating problems. That is what the spirit of this agreement is all about.
If you go back to the objectives and recognise what that particular convention said - which, I might add, has been going on for 39 years, Minister - it tells me something. After all, at the end of the day what we are trying to achieve here is safety for all the people, be they in the vessel or those who are pulling up those containers and stacking them on the side of the dock. And not only that; as a Department of Transport, we must start thinking outside of the box - or should I say outside the container - and realise that when that container moves out of our ports and it is stuffed with goods beyond its normal weight, we are damaging our roads. There is a big problem with overloading in this country. I am sure both of you are aware of that.
All I am saying is - and I have been calling for it for a number of years - that with simple technical devices, which are available to all of us, all containers can be weighed by virtue of utilising very good technology on the straddle gantry. It is happening worldwide and I will quote here shortly what the International Maritime Organisation has actually agreed to.
There is the Deputy Minister wagging his head. Why can't we just for once go and say, "Right, let us put an end to this overloading and stop the stuffing of these containers"? That little thing will tell the particular operator who is lifting it up whether this container is overweight or underweight. If it is overweight, it gets parked and we deal with that particular matter in terms of all the legislation that you put forward in this Bill.
That is not a lot to ask, Minister, and that is all I am asking for. If - and for me it makes common sense - a particular container comes into our ports and is not loaded, we are going to end up with the problems I raised.
I also want to say another quick word about the high-cube containers, which are not even dealt with in this Bill, but they are coming into effect. In a couple of years there will be no more of the old containers here. The high- cube will be phased in. I know that the Deputy Minister is dealing with this at a high level with all the freighters, but they create a safety problem because they don't pass under the bridges that we have built. We need to look at how we can modify the trailers that will be carrying these containers.
I want your department to go back and do research: and I do this on the basis of the history of the 17th amendment. We know they are not really good at legislation and doing consultation. They never did consultation on the immigration Bill and now we are sitting with taxis having to possibly write out manifestos for every passenger that gets in and out of that vehicle. I am appealing to you, Minister, to go and look and get your department to a little more research. I gave them piles of information which I took off the Internet and I said that they must go and investigate because this is coming. [Time expired.]
The International Maritime Organisation has indicated that it will be mandatory for containers to be weighed before they leave the harbour. [Applause.]