Nautic SA gets fisheries contract

Fisheries has awarded the contract to run its fleet of patrol and research vessels to Cape Town-based company Nautic South Africa (Pty) Ltd. The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said on Wednesday Nautic was one of seven companies considered for the short-term contract, valid for six months. James Fisher, chief executive of Nautic, said on Wednesday the company was “aware we are holding a bit of a hot potato here”, given the controversy surrounding the vessels, but added: “What is required now is a practical and pragmatic approach to get the vessels working and out to sea. We put in a very competitive bid. Our approach is to solve the problems as soon as possible.”

The company was working closely with Damen Shipyards Cape Town, which has the contract to repair the vessels. Three patrol vessels would be first to go to sea. “We can’t put a date on it, but it will be as soon as possible. We have crew on standby.” A priority was to get the vessels “classified”, assigned a class and inspected and surveyed to ensure they met certain requirements, largely to ensure seaworthiness. The company was working closely with Lloyds Register of Shipping and with the SA Maritime Safety Authority. This after the fisheries’ fleet was largely confined to the naval dockyard for a year when Fisheries Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson transferred the vessels to the SA Navy in April 2011 amid allegations of tender irregularities when the tender was awarded to Sekunjalo.

Very few patrols were carried out under the navy and only one research cruise was attempted and aborted half-way after sea water was pumped into the fuel tanks. DA MP Pieter van Dalen has described the award to Nautic as “significant because Nautic Africa was formerly known as KND, which formed part of the R800 million Sekunjalo tender bid”. He said former fisheries deputy director-general Greta Apelgren-Narkerdien, who left her post on Tuesday, had said that Smit Amandla, Sekunjalo and companies associated with it would not be allowed to bid for the contract. Van Dalen said this was “unethical” as the tender had been awarded “to the same group, while using a different name”.

However, Fisher said this was not so. “There is absolutely no connection between Nautic and Sekunjalo whatsoever. We did not form part of that bid. We did trade as KND Projects mainly due to the fact that the company manufactured KND-designed vessels exclusively. This is not to be confused with KND (Kobus Naval Design). We did not have a relationship with Sekunjalo.” KND was 100 percent owned by Kobus Potgieter, who had no shareholding or influence in Nautic from its inception to date. Fisher said he could see where the confusion could have arisen. Sekunjalo lacked certain technical skills, so had asked Kobus Potgieter of KND - not KND Projects - if KND would provide the technical skills for the bid contract.

“That was driven by Kobus. I can see why there is confusion, but Kobus had no ownership in Nautic and vice versa.” Later Nautic said to the best of its knowledge the agreement between Sekunjalo and KND had lapsed. “Nautichas not had any agreement with Sekunjalo or its group companies.”