Report of the Portfolio Committee on Transport on the Marine Oil Pollution (Preparedness, Response and Cooperation) Bill [B 10 – 2022] (National Assembly – sec 76), dated 24 October 2023

The Portfolio Committee on Transport, having considered the subject of the Marine Oil Pollution (Preparedness, Response and Cooperation) Bill [B 10 – 2022] (National Assembly – sec 76), referred to it and classified by the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) as a section 76 Bill, reports the Bill with amendments [B 10A– 2022].

Background to the Bill

1.	 The Bill was referred to the Portfolio Committee on Transport (the Committee) on 10 March 2022.
2.	The Bill seeks to give effect to the International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Cooperation, 1990 and to provide for matters connected therewith.
3.	The Bill was published for comment from 14 July 2023 until 16 August 2023 in national and regional newspapers, on the Parliament website, X (previously referred to as Twitter) and Facebook.
4.	The public hearings were held on 5 September 2023 for stakeholders that indicated that they would like to submit oral submissions, in addition to the written comment submitted.  Written comments were received from National, Provincial and Local Government Departments, Companies, Industry Representative Bodies and private individuals. The Department responded to the oral and written submissions on 12 September 2023.
5.	The notable amendments to the Bill are: 
a.	A number of definitions were amended or inserted, such as the insertion of “emergency”, “new development” and “South African Maritime Safety Authority Act”, as well as terminology correction through the replacement of “exploration” with “prospecting”;
b.	 Grammatical, drafting and cross-referencing corrections were made;
c.	 Based on submissions requesting more protection and stronger risk assessments or risk policies with regard to marine and other wildlife that may be affected by marine oil spills, insertions were made to include references to “species most at risk” as well as “oiled wildlife” as well as extending responsibilities to operations “within the vicinity of a colony” in the relevant sections;
d.	 Clarity is provided through the amendments to clearly indicate who bears the cost of marine oil pollution risk assessments and the timeframes within which this must be done, thus indicating that the owner or operator of any port facility, oil-handling facility or offshore installation must, at its cost, after two years of the commencement of this Act, undertake marine oil pollution risk assessment;
e.	 Where needed, timeframes were inserted to relevant clauses;
f.	 Following concerns raised in submissions, an insertion was proposed that requires that adequately trained personnel must be present on ships falling within the MARPOL regime along with other already proposed requirements in the Bill;
g.	 Clarity is provided on what would constitute a small, medium or large spill by making reference to tonnage of spills and “transboundary” operations;
h.	 Adding to the functions of inspectors the allowance to “consider samples and/or photographic evidence from oiled wildlife which may not necessarily be from an installation, an oil-handling facility or a port facility”; and
i.	 Adding to the list of offences, instances where a person provides a false statement or account of events related to a pollution incident that attempts to hide or conceal the extent of the oil pollution incident.

The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) abstained from the adoption of the Bill.

Report to be considered.