John Hare has once again raised some interesting questions this week with an article published in the Cape Times entitled: ‘Cape should be Africa’s corner cafe.’

In it he raises the question of why up to 80% of ships that pass the Cape each year do not stop? This despite the fact that maritime South Africa is in an extremely fortunate position with regard to geographical location, port facilities and expertise, communications, commercial and legal infrastructure etc, etc, etc.

He then goes on to give SAMSA credit for attempting to drive the maritime industry forward, but states that it is a huge task with many issues to overcome.

His general message is that all those in the maritime industry need to contribute to making our coast a ‘must-stop’ destination by supporting the efforts that SAMSA has made thus far, encouraging education in the maritime sphere and seeing how and where we can all assist in taking a giant step forward together.