A 53-day ordeal of repeated engine failure and food shortages, followed by arrests and weeks of legal battles, has finally ended for the 26-man crew of a Sri Lankan ship.
The crew of the cargo vessel Lanka Mahapola would be heading home on Friday. The arrest of the ship was provisionally lifted so they could receive their outstanding wages.
On Wednesday, lawyer Nalini Maharaj, representing the vessel’s owner Dr Sanjaya Sedara, asked the Durban High Court to provisionally postpone the arrest of the ship until the crew had been paid, and the repair costs and legal charges had been cleared.
“Their money is due to be paid today and a flight back to Sri Lanka has been paid for,” said Sprite Zungu, a Durban inspector from the International Transport Workers’ Federation.
Saman Siriratana, Lanka Mahapola’s chief engineer, told the Daily News about the crew’s ordeal.
“On March 20, we left Jeddah (in Saudi Arabia) for Durban. This trip was supposed to have taken 30 days, but because of several problems with the ship, it took us 53 days,” he said. “We had to stop and repair the engine about 10 times, and two of these times took place in Somali waters.”
Piracy off the coast of Somalia has been a major threat to international shipping over the past few years.
Siriratana said that about 60 nautical miles off the coast of Mozambique, the ship’s generators stopped.
“We were without lights for 13 days,” he said.
After eventually receiving help from Maputo port authorities, the crew made their way to Durban.
“When we got here, we informed the shipping company (Sri Lankan-based Triple S Shipping) of our problems, but there was no reply,” said Siriratana. “Eventually, an inspector (Zungu) came on board and helped us to take legal action.”
But the ship was detained by the SA Maritime Safety Authority because it allegedly did not comply with international safety standards.
In May, 13 of the 26 crew members were arrested for allegedly stealing scrap metal from the ship. They were subsequently released.
Earlier this month, the crew were granted their application by the Durban High Court to have the vessel auctioned.
The vessel had been detained in the Durban Harbour since May 17.
It was attached in terms of a Durban High Court order regarding a wage dispute between Sedara and the crew, who were claiming $85 000 (R708 900) in outstanding wages.
“The police were given the wrong information about the scrap metal theft,” said Zungu. “But 13 of these men spent two nights in the holding cells at the Durban Central police station.”
The men had told their lawyer, Struan Mundell, that it was common practice for them to sell scrap metal to earn pocket money and that they had done so with the ship captain’s permission.
Maharaj had said the men needed the permission of the sheriff of the court to do so because the ship had been attached. - Daily News