Deputy Speaker, the Merchant Shipping (Civil Liability Convention) Bill is a companion Bill to the Merchant Shipping (International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund) Bill, which this House considered in the previous item on the Order Paper.
The purpose of the Bill is to amend the International Convention on Civil Liability Convention for Oil Pollution Damage into law. As in the previous Bill we have just considered, this Bill is one of four in a package which is designed to give effect to South Africa's obligations under the Civil Liability Convention and International Maritime Organization Protocol of 1992 to amend the International Convention on the Establishment of an International Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage of 1971, which I will refer to as the Fund Convention.
In this particular case, the money Bill and administration Bill referred to in the previous debate in this House still form part of the package, with the Merchant Shipping (International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund) Bill completing the quartet.
This Merchant Shipping (Civil Liability Convention) Bill must be read together with the Merchant Shipping (International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund) Bill, which the House has just considered. Therefore, the benefits to be obtained by the establishment of an International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund and the mechanism of the civil liability provisions apply equally to this Bill.
Indeed, as the Maritime Law Association - not "society", committee chairperson - pointed out to the committee, both the money and administration Bills need to be enacted at the same time as the other two Bills to give effect to the Fund Convention. This has been confirmed by the Department of Transport, which assured the committee that the aim was to proclaim all the Bills on the same day. The Bill contains two further important parts other than miscellaneous provisions, which deal with compensation and insurance matters.
With regard to compensation, clause 6 refers to the construction of certain provisions and references in the 1992 Liability Convention and clarifies that references to "territorial sea" and "exclusive economic zone" in the Civil Liability Convention must be construed in a manner that is consistent with the Maritime Zones Act of 1994.
The jurisdiction of the High Court to hear and determine claims for compensation in terms of its admiralty jurisdiction is confirmed in clause 7, while the area of jurisdiction of the court is deemed to include that portion of the exclusive economic zone and territorial waters of South Africa adjacent to the coastline of its area of jurisdiction. This deeming provision was one of the amendments motivated by the General Council of the Bar and accepted by the Portfolio Committee on Transport.
Clause 8 of the Bill completes the section on compensation and sets out the process as to whether a claim for liability may be limited and where that application will be heard. Part 3 of the Bill deals with insurance certificates in some details. A government ship is defined as well as the application of the Act to ships and a limited class of exceptions. A detailed series of subclauses set out various enforcement provisions and fairly punitive sanctions for noncompliance. The final clauses in this part specify how insurance certificates are issued, extended and may be cancelled. It defines the role that the South African Maritime Safety Authority, Samsa, plays in this respect. The DA would like to acknowledge the positive and constructive role both the Maritime Law Association and the General Council of the Bar played in tightening up this legislation. The Maritime Law Association made a number of pertinent inputs aimed at harmonising the Civil Liability Convention with the maritime pollution Act as well as commenting on various jurisdictional issues. The General Council of the Bar clarified exactly what protocols or conventions were being enacted and the exact purpose of the Bill as well as wording some of the language used more precisely. The DA thus has pleasure in supporting this Bill.
Finally, Deputy Speaker, it is odd that we have devoted nearly two hours to debating two pieces of largely technical and uncontroversial legislation when there are so many issues of national importance that are not debated in this House. Why are we not debating the parlous state of our mining industry, brought to its knees by debilitating strikes, or the fate of learners whose exam papers have been torn up by members of the SA Democratic Teachers' Union, or perhaps most importantly, the collapse of health services in the Eastern Cape, where the most vulnerable of our people pay with their lives for catastrophic ineptitude and government failure?
After 20 years of democracy, we have to do better than this. Passing good legislation is not enough if the failure of implementation and service delivery reeks like an oil spill on a pristine South African beach. I thank you. [Applause.]