Ship arrested over R430m debt claim
Caryn Dolley
A SHIP has been arrested in Saldanha because its owners allegedly owe creditors more than $60 million (R430m).
While lawyers wrangle over the legal details, the Cape Santa Milagria, a bulk carrier registered in Tuvalu, is anchored off Sea Point with a skeleton crew of 27 people.
The captain, who spoke to the Cape Times in a telephone interview yesterday, said they had been told to wait offshore until further notice.
“We are under arrest. There are 27 people aboard. We’re just waiting for orders. We don’t have any orders yet. We are fine,” he said in a thick accent.
The Cape Santa Milagria, owned by a British company, was arrested in Saldanha 12 days ago and then moved to Cape Town.
Yesterday, attorney Matt Ash, appointed by the ship’s owners, declined to comment.
Edmund Greiner, also acting for the owners, said he could not speak to the media until getting instructions from his London-based client.
Cassiem Augustus, representative of the International Transport Federation in Cape Town, said the ship had been arrested because it owed creditors at least $60m.
The arrest of the ship also led to the arrests of five Indian nationals, who had flown to Cape Town as replacement crew, and an urgent midnight court case to get them freed.
Augustus said that, while everyone was focusing on the money issue, focus should also be placed on the well-being of those aboard the vessel and on how the replacement crew members had been treated.
Alan Goldberg, a shipping attorney of Rose Street Chambers, representing the ship’s replacement crew, said at the end of last month the five men from India had arrived in Cape Town as relief crew.
According to court papers, the five had refused to board the vessel after hearing it had been arrested. A Home Affairs official told them they could stay in Cape Town to make arrangements to return home. It was agreed the five would stay in a hotel in Cape Town until their flight back to India, scheduled for last Saturday.
Goldberg said on Friday evening, the day before their flight, the five had gone to fetch their passports at Customs House. However, the immigration officer said he had not heard of any plans to have them housed in Cape Town, and had them arrested and locked up in the Sea Point police station’s holding cells at about 11pm.
An urgent application was then lodged in the Western Cape High Court where procedures started at 4am.
After hearing evidence, Judge Vincent Saldanha ordered the five crew members be released from the holding cells and that the immigration department pay the legal costs of the application.
Goldberg said the crew was released from the cells at 5.30am, with only just enough time to get their passports and get to the airport in time for their flight
caryn.dolley@inl.co.za
http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/western-cape/ship-arrested-over-r430m-debt-claim-1.680012
