{"id":17014,"date":"2022-09-21T09:10:15","date_gmt":"2022-09-21T07:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.kivuavenir.com\/?p=17014"},"modified":"2022-09-21T09:13:55","modified_gmt":"2022-09-21T07:13:55","slug":"sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/sea\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa is surrounded by sea but doesn\u2019t have a plan to protect it: three steps to get one"},"content":{"rendered":"

This omission was underscored again recently by an evolving\u00a0master plan for South Africa\u2019s oceans<\/a>. The document is significant as it puts the importance of South Africa\u2019s oceans into sharper focus. But this shouldn\u2019t obscure the fact that government\u2019s commitment to comprehensively harness the ocean to help arrest economic decline has been disappointing.<\/p>\n

The document also underscores the absence of a coherent and comprehensive policy. In countries where this has been done well \u2013 such as\u00a0New Zealand<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Ghana<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 policies have been developed that encompass the economic value of a country\u2019s oceans, as well as the vulnerability they present from a security point of view.<\/p>\n

There are solutions.<\/p>\n

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A three step process would put South Africa\u2019s maritime security house in order. The first would be to create a well-designed government-led process that includes a high-office body and core stakeholders. This would lead directly into the second step \u2013 the mapping of the country\u2019s national maritime interests as well as the threats it faces. The third step would be creation of an integrated national maritime strategy.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The growing trend internationally is for countries to be explicit about their maritime interests and back this with dedicated institutional commitments to promote, develop and defend them if required. It\u2019s time South Africa followed suit.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s missing<\/h2>\n

Some efforts have been made at getting a policy framework in place. The most recent is the\u00a0Draft Framework on South Africa\u2019s National Interest<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The evolving master plan and\u00a0Operation Phakisa<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 launched by the country\u2019s presidency in July 2014 to hasten solutions to \u201ccritical development issues\u201d \u2013 stress the critical importance of the oceans economy to South Africa\u2019s overall economic interests.<\/p>\n

The master plan also outlines good statistics on the potential contribution the oceans economy holds for the country.<\/p>\n

But neither of these adds up to an integrated and credible maritime security plan for the country. The overall picture is one of working in silos, seemingly without coordination.<\/p>\n

A recent communiqu\u00e9 from the\u00a0Southern African Development Community Heads of State meeting<\/a>\u00a0in the DR Congo noted that maritime security of Southern Africa is not what it should be and that a regional maritime strategy must be implemented.<\/p>\n

There are examples South Africa could learn form. There are sound strategies on maritime security emerging among Gulf of Guinea countries,\u00a0Kenya<\/a>\u00a0in the Horn region, and the emphasis by\u00a0Seychelles<\/a>\u00a0on security to harness the economic potential of its maritime territories.<\/p>\n

Countries like\u00a0Ghana<\/a>,\u00a0Nigeria<\/a>, Kenya, Seychelles and Mauritius have made strides.<\/p>\n

Beyond Africa, the UK recently launched its\u00a0national maritime security strategy<\/a>. For its part, China has turned its attention to the importance of the oceans\u00a0in pursuit of its national interests<\/a>. This ambition features alongside the\u00a0military buildup in the western Indian Ocean<\/a>\u00a0with a focus on the Horn region and southern strands to Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles and Maldives.<\/p>\n

The naval profile unfolds alongside a much larger oceans agenda made up of security, safety, climate change, functional connectivity, and a thriving blue economy.<\/p>\n

Prioritising South Africa\u2019s maritime interests<\/h2>\n

A first step is to appoint a high-level entity to oversee maritime affairs in South Africa. A Department of Maritime Affairs is an attractive idea. But a powerful steering committee reporting to the presidency is probably a more attainable start.<\/p>\n

This practice is growing.\u00a0New Zealand<\/a>\u00a0and Ghana have taken this approach.<\/p>\n

Next there needs to be a detailed mapping of interests on existing and new domains. An example is the security of underwater cable infrastructure \u2013 locally and regionally.<\/p>\n

The maritime domain has essentially become too important to leave within a vague and broad set of statements like South Africa\u2019s\u00a0recent framework document<\/a>. Clearly articulated national interests with a maritime underpinning should inform an integrated national maritime security strategy.<\/p>\n

In my view this is imperative for three reasons.<\/p>\n

First, existing plans and documents are too vague about a credible security foundation for South Africa\u2019s dependence on, and use of, the oceans. This leaves too much room for ambiguity about what must be secured.<\/p>\n

Second, the absence of a strategy inherently forfeits the value in planning for shifts in maritime interests as well as the dynamic modern strategic maritime environment.<\/p>\n

A third aspect stems from the value of a maritime security strategy to inform collaboration with regional and international partners (other African countries). Having a maritime strategy presents opportunities for maritime diplomacy \u2013 whether coercive, cooperative or more persuasive in kind.<\/p>\n

South Africa is also very explicit in its foreign policy about commitment to the Southern African Development Community and Africa. The African Union\u2019s\u00a0AIMS-2050<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Lom\u00e9 Charter<\/a>\u00a0as well as\u00a0Agenda 2063<\/a>\u00a0alongside the\u00a0UN Sustainable Development Goals<\/a>\u00a0have explicit maritime objectives that call for cooperation. Collectively, these framework documents guide and expect South Africa to be in step with its own strategies.<\/p>\n

The question is: what does South Africa bring to the maritime table?<\/p>\n

Not a great deal, is the answer. This means it can\u2019t support and cooperate with higher order African maritime architectures. It seemingly remains up to academia, NGOs, individual state departments and agencies to play many of the constructive maritime roles on the international stage.<\/p>\n

South Africa comes across as being out of touch with maritime security developments on the continent and beyond. There is no doubt that encouraging work is being done on South Africa\u2019s ocean landscapes. This work unfortunately stems more from collections of actors in national departments, agencies, NGOs, and academia shining the light on the country\u2019s critical maritime interests.<\/p>\n

But this hasn\u2019t been translated into a coherent strategy. The ultimate responsibility rests with the higher echelons of government. It is national government that must orchestrate the opportunities, actors and beneficiaries that will give expression to Operation Phakisa\u2019s extensive oceans agenda.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This omission was underscored again recently by an evolving\u00a0master plan for South Africa\u2019s oceans. The document is significant as it puts the importance of South Africa\u2019s oceans into sharper focus. But this shouldn\u2019t obscure the fact that government\u2019s commitment to comprehensively harness the ocean to help arrest economic decline has been disappointing. The document also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":17017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_review":[],"enable_review":"0","type":"percentage","name":"","summary":"","brand":"","sku":"","good":[{"good_text":""}],"bad":[{"bad_text":""}],"score_override":"","override_value":"","rating":[{"rating_text":"","rating_number":"10"}],"price":[{"shop":"","price":"","link":"","icon":""}],"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"jnews_post_split":{"enable_post_split":"0","post_split":[{"template":"1","tag":"h2","numbering":"asc","mode":"normal","first":"0","enable_toc":"0","toc_type":"normal"}]},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17014"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17016,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17014\/revisions\/17016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}