Pretoria should concentrate on its primary tasks in shipping

SADLY, I need to beat a familiar drum as deaf ears did not hear the previous drumbeats. Pretoria, it seems, has resurrected the ill-advised quest for a South African national shipping line.

- BRIAN INGPEN

While there is consensus regarding the necessity of South African involvement in moving the country's imports and exports and coastwise cargoes, the role of the marine division of the department of transport is not establishing or running shipping lines.

This is the domain of private enterprise that might risk investing in shipping without taxpayers' bail-outs. Private business has greater manoeuvrability in terms of applying sound commercial principles to an operation, of adjusting quickly to fluid trends in international shipping, of efficient procurement processes, and of being able to appoint the best possible minds to run the business, not loyal cadres with scant knowledge of or experience in the complexities of local and global shipping.

In addition to those with a shipping background, successful shipping operations require seasoned seafarers in prominent executive positions to provide essential input regarding ships and their operation, trades and support for seafarers.

Failure to apply these criteria will see any shipping outfit strike proverbial icebergs as has happened to every state-owned entity in South Africa.

Nowhere has a state shipping line been able to compete efficiently without significant state subsidies. Russia's state-run shipping operations received huge government handouts and shielding which disappeared once the Soviet Union collapsed.