The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) extends heartfelt condolences to the families, friends, and colleagues of the 11 fishermen who tragically lost their lives when the MFV Lepanto sank off the coast of Hout Bay. We further extend our condolences to the Fisherman who drowned at Brightwaters, at the Cape Point. Our thoughts are with those affected by this devastating incident from both incidents.
We commend the courageous efforts of the search and rescue teams, including the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI), South African Search and Rescue (SASAR), Sea Harvest Group and other emergency services, who worked tirelessly to locate and save the crew members. We acknowledge the valiant efforts of the nine fishermen who were rescued and are grateful they are now safely reunited with their families.
SAFTU is deeply concerned about the safety of workers at sea and calls for a thorough investigation by the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) to determine the cause of this tragic incident.
We urge that measures must be taken before boarding of ships to prevent such tragedies from happening again. This should involve tighter regulations for safety purpose, but not to exclude small scale firshermen from conducting fishing as a subsistence activity. In fact, government must support those small fishermen to meet all the regulatory measures for safety purposes.
