GOVERNMENT says it is actively playing its part to combat transnational organised maritime crime, while remaining committed to its international obligations aimed at combating lawlessness at sea.

Ambassador Mxolisi Nkosi, the Deputy Director-General of Global Governance and Continental Agenda at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), on Tuesday addressed a United Nations Security Council debate on transnational organised crime at sea as a threat to international peace and security.

Nkosi highlighted that the South African security and coastal patrols have confiscated numerous vessels and arrested countless people involved in illegal fishing and abalone poaching in SA waters.

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“This denies South Africa millions of dollars of revenue and negatively affects the livelihoods of our coastal communities,” he said.

In cooperation with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the governments of Mozambique, Tanzania and South Africa have entered into a trilateral agreement to counter drug trafficking on maritime routes in the Indian Ocean.

Nkosi said this agreement seeks to intensify maritime surveillance capability, detection of illicit trafficking in the Indian Ocean as well as enhance the security at ports and other points of entry in the region,” he said.

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In addition to these initiatives on the African continent, South Africa is currently the chair of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), which was formed in 1995 and consists of 21 Indian ocean-rim countries from Africa, Asia as well as Australia.

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