Cape Town - The South African Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) has honoured brave and hard-working seafarers who rode the high seas to keep global trade going.
The men and women were recognised for their work at a colourful event on Saturday night in Cape Town.
Transport Minister, Sibusiso Ndebele, attended the ceremony with several other maritime industry players.
About 98 percent of South Africa's trade is seaborne and such trade contributed to over 50 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The night belonged to Precious Dube, Bongiwe Mbambo and Pinky Zungu who made history by becoming the first female pilots to obtain open licences. These licences enabled them to navigate ships of any size and type into SA waters.
Dube who was the first to qualify with such a licence expressed excitement about her achievement.
"The captains of foreign ships can be very skeptical when you are a woman because it's uncommon for them to see a female marine pilot, although I have heard that there are a few in the United States (of America) and possibly Australia," she said.
Majaja 'Jackson' Piyose, 39, from Umtata now newly appointed skipper of the Harvest Veronica won the Samsa fishing award.
Piyose said that he left home for the Coastal town of Saldanha to look for a job after failing to complete school grade 12 due to financial constraints.
Now with over 30 people working under him, he said that his dream was to help others reach where he was now.
Captain Dawie Erasmus scooped Samsa'commercial award. "To come from a 'desert' childhood, to sailing across the oceans as captain of a ship is testimony that anything is possible if you believe in yourself, apply yourself and work harder than you play," he said.
Ndebele commended the various winners for their hard work and highlighted the importance of sea trade to the country's prosperity.
However, he said that the shortage of seafarers in South Africa was a concern and they wanted to see more people trained and skilled to take up the occupation.
He also raised the concern that while South Africa was surrounded by the sea, it did not have a single ship of its own to be proud of. Ndebele said that countries such as Kenya, Tanzania and Nigeria had their own ships.
"You can't sail in a South African ship from Cape Town to Durban," he said, emphasising that the situation should change.
