Lack of manpower ruins CPT cruise call

Passengers arriving
at Table Bay Harbour,
Cape Town, on October
28 aboard MSC Cruises’
MSC Opera, were delayed for
hours because there were
not enough customs officials
on duty when a cruise ship
docked.
 “As far as I know it was an
issue of manpower,” Western
Cape Minister of Economic
Opportunities, Alan Winde,
told TNW. “It’s not as if these
ships are arriving out of the
blue. There is a plan; we know
when they’ve booked, when
they are docking and, quite
frankly, we need to actually
know how many people want
to come ashore beforehand.”
The ship was travelling from
Southampton to Cape Town
and carried international and
SA passengers.
Alan said many cruise
lines took care of Home
Affairs documentation on
board before arriving at a
destination. “If you know
you’re going to be going on
shore at some port, even the
day before, you’ve put your
name down, you do it on board
before you even leave.”
Allan Foggitt, MSC Cruises
SA director, confirmed that
there were four officials
with computers to process
documentation and that it
became evident after the
vessel had arrived that more
officials would be needed.
“They managed to find an
additional 10 [officials] to
assist manually but by then
the damage was done.
There is no doubt that the
four computers processed
passengers very quickly and
efficiently but with the volume
of passengers disembarking
and embarking, there was
never a chance of coping.”
Allan said that last season
calls had been handled
satisfactorily by 10 to 14
officials. “The problem
is largely related to the
manpower assigned to
the task. There are 2 100
passengers arriving and
2 100 passengers departing
in a period of maximum eight
hours so taking into account
the requirements for customs
and immigration clearance,
sufficient manpower must
be assigned to the task or
it won’t matter if we had the
best facility in the world – it
would still gridlock.”
 “It is really unacceptable
that we don’t have sufficient
manpower to deal with 2 000
passengers wanting to visit
us, spend their money in our
country and go on tours that
they’ve booked, and they can’t
get through the process. We
can’t afford that,” commented
Alan.
 “Hopefully this was an
isolated incident because of
the lack of thought given to
the task but if more manpower
is not assigned for future calls
we will definitely have a repeat
of the problem, which reflects
very poorly on Cape Town and
also on the shipping company
involved,” said Allan.
The Western Cape
Department of Economic
Opportunities has called for a
meeting with the Waterfront,
Cape Town Tourism, the ports
authorities and with Home
Affairs to discuss the issue.
TNW had contacted the
Department of Home Affairs
for comment on numerous
occasions since Wednesday
morning but had not received
a response by the time of
publication.