Transnet is locked in a R2.3bn legal case dating back to 2016 arising from a claim by the owners and underwriters of a cargo ship MV Smart that ran aground as it left Richards Bay harbour in 2013. 

The ship ran aground on a sandbar in 10m and the owners blame the Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) for negligently allowing the ship to leave the harbour. 

The claim is the largest of the 49 claims that Transnet is facing in respect of alleged recklessness, negligence and misconduct of a functionary or an official of the parastatal. 

Details of these claims were provided by minister of planning, monitoring and evaluation Maropene Ramokgopa in reply to a parliamentary question posed by EFF MP Vuyani Pambo.

Ramokgopa noted that as at the end of March 2023, contingent liabilities arising from court proceedings against state institutions stood at R21bn.

Transnet is opposing the claims against it for the grounding and break-up of MV Smart, arguing that it was a result of the negligence of the captain of the vessel or that this was at least a contributory factor to the incident.

It is also relying on a section of the Ports Act, which states that “neither the authority nor an employee or a representative of the authority is liable for loss or damage caused by anything done or omitted by the authority, the employee or the representative in good faith while performing any function in terms of this Act”.

At the time it ran aground, the MV Smart, a Capesize bulk carrier was fully laden with 147,650 tonnes of steamed coal had been loaded from the Richards Bay Coal Terminal. 

The Panamanian-flagged ship was registered to Alpha Marine Corp and was en route to deliver its cargo to a port in China. All 23 crew members were rescued by a National Sea Rescue Institute helicopter. 

Alpha Marine and the underwriters say the TNPA was negligent in allowing the ship to sail on that day, and its pilots had negligently left the ship while it was still in the long harbour channel. 

The damages claimed include the loss of the hull, the loss of the bunkers, the owners’ loss of their use of the ship, and the costs involved in the removal of the wreck. In addition, the owners seek to have TNPA pay the reasonable costs of removing the coal from the sea bed and to compensate the owners for claims which they may be liable to pay to cargo interests arising out of the loss of the ship and the cargo. 

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has been cited as a respondent in the case to compel it to make available to the owners a computer system, which was operating in Richards Bay harbour on the day that the ship was lost. The system provides real-time information and enables a predictive function to be performed in relation to the safety of ships entering and leaving the harbour. 

In 2020, Alpha Marine scored a court victory in a pretrial application that allowed it access to the computerised system designed to indicate if it is safe for a ship to sail. It alleges in court papers that while the system was operational on that day, incorrect data had been fed into it. 

The other cases against Transnet cited by Ramokgopa related to loss of life as a result of alleged negligence by its workers, including several train collisions with vehicles as well as damage to shipping containers and their contents and to vessels. 

Transnet believes all the cases it is facing are defensible.