Cabotage as a means of developing the South African merchant fleet.

Abstract

The aim of the study is to examine the potential use of cabotage in growing the South African ship register and in creating conditions for the development of the South African merchant fleet. The study explores the adoption of a cabotage regime that would encourage the growth of the South African ship registry and assesses the mitigation of maritime related legislation to accommodate the implementation of cabotage for fleet growth purposes. Cabotage is the coastal trading of a vessel from one port to another within a single country's territorial boundaries. It is a term that is used to enforce restrictions on a country's coastal trade, and it can be strict or liberal. A strict cabotage regime is one in which maritime operations along a country's coast are restricted to indigenous ships, while a liberal cabotage regime is one in which foreign-owned ships are not discriminated against and their involvement in the country's coastal trade industry is unrestricted. The thesis follows an interpretivist paradigm, in which the researcher explores alternative means of developing the merchant fleet. This research is a desktop study that uses secondary data and employs a descriptive qualitative design. Both data collection and analysis were conducted using qualitative content analysis. The research poses three main questions. The first research question looks at the current status of the South African ship registry, which the study reveals is based on a registry carrying only five merchant ships despite government interventions to make the South African ship registry attractive to foreign shipowners. The second research question looks at whether cabotage can encourage the growth and development of the South African ship register. To this, the study found that the strict cabotage regime is suitable when seeking to encourage the growth of the South African merchant fleet. The third research question closely relates to the second research question. It deals with measures that government can adopt to implement and regulate cabotage in order to encourage growth of the ship registry in South Africa. The study found that adequate funding is fundamental to the initialisation of cabotage in South Africa as it would allow locals to finance ships and substitute foreign flags trading on the coast. Lastly, an examination of the adoption and implementation of cabotage in India and China was conducted to determine how South Africa can implement and regulate cabotage in comparison to its trade partners. Strict cabotage as adopted in China was indicated as the appropriate course for South Africa. Although the aim was to establish which of the two cabotage regimes would support the development of a merchant fleet, there were vital lessons to be learned from both China and India cabotage regimes. It is therefore recommended for South Africa to take cognisance of the current status of the ship registry in view of the requirements of a strict cabotage regime on building, ownership, flagging, crewing and manning of the cabotage ships in South Africa.