The An Yue Jiang and its cargo of arms destined for Zimbabwe has reportedly been recalled to China.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) welcomes reports quoting a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, who said that COSCO decided to recall the ship because it was unable to offload its controversial cargo.
After being blocked at all South African ports, Lloyds tracked and located the ship off the west coast of South Africa, supposedly headed for Namibia or Angola. While there was speculation that the ship would try to dock in Maputo, Lloyds understands that the Mozambique government did not want to handle the cargo either.
The ITF, which has mobilised workers across Southern Africa to oppose any transfer of the An Yue Jiang’s load of arms, said that a return of the ship to China is the only realistic option for the Chinese government to take.
The IFT does not rule out the possibility that the ship could still receive a change of orders to put into a Namibian port to refuel or even attempt transhipment of the goods at sea, and continues to lobby the South African, Angolan and Namibian governments to follow the lead of their own workers and unions and declare that any assistance will be limited to that necessary to return the 28 crew members to their homes - and the cargo of ammunition to its point of origin.
ITF general secretary David Cockroft commented: “There’s only one place for this cargo to be now, and that’s China.”
The ITF is meeting with the ship’s owners tomorrow and hopes to receive their promise that they will send the ship to the nearest port to refuel and take on supplies, then get it back to China.
The ship is believed to be just outside South African territorial waters.
Following up on rumours from Harare that there would be an attempt to airfreight the cargo from China to Zimbabwe, and considering that any such aircraft would have to fly over one or more countries to reach landlocked Zimbabwe, eyefortransport posed this question to a source within the aviation industry who is an expert on air cargo regulations:
Q: What would the Dangerous Goods classification and rules of carriage, packing and stowage be for the cargo of arms reportedly aboard the An Yue Jiang?
A: “The items described are generally classified as Munitions of War. Unlike the transport of dangerous goods, there is no international convention on the transport of munitions of war. Each State through or over which the munitions of war would be transported may have its own requirements, and it is expected that each of these States would have to approve the carriage of such munitions through or over its territory.
“In addition the bullets, rockets, mortars and high explosives would be classified as dangerous goods and would be those that are normally forbidden for transport by air according to the ICAO Technical Instructions (and IATA DGR).
“Transport of these commodities would require the approval of the States of origin, destination, transit and overflight, and of the airline operator if this has not been addressed by the other approvals.