[Here is something very interesting indeed… A long time ago, I put stories on my website about South Africa wrangling about “nuclear powered US Navy ships” not being allowed into South African harbours – specifically Cape Town harbour. This has happened before… where the South African Govt has turned a US Aircraft carrier away from Cape Town. In this case, and entire carrier battle-group were turned away.

Now what is interesting is the lame excuse… the lame methods used… to pretend that the “documentation” was not sorted out in time… But… if I look at this… it bears a similar pattern to the way the blacks deal with us. They cover up FIRM INTENT by pretending that it was merely a “mistake” or a “slip up”… How on earth… can a Govt not process the documentation for a nuclear carrier group…? How can a Govt clerk simply ignore it? No! I am quite certain, this is a DEFINITE SNUB… a REAL THING…

The blacks may cover this up, by being all friendly… and making all sorts of pleasant noises and excuses… but the fact is… I am quite sure this is a definite, determined act. Furthermore… this is not the first time… the S.African Govt has refused to let a US Aircraft carrier into a harbour… and that makes it smell even more.

I think, that at a high level… a decision has been taken… by our Govt to stop US Navy ships come into port… (or at least the aircraft carriers)… and our Govt is firmly determined not to let this happen… But they are hiding this fact by using diplomatic language, etc.

The news report below mentions what we are losing… simply by refusing US sailors to come on to our soil. Jan]

Durban and Cape Town have lost out on an opportunity to showcase South Africa because of a bureaucratic botch-up over an American carrier strike group’s visit.

The five ships of the strike group, led by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman – one of the US Navy’s latest – were due in the two ports at the weekend.

Durban was to have hosted two modern Arleigh Burke class destroyers, the USS Barry and USS Mason, as well as replenishment tanker USS Arctic, until April 1, while the aircraft carrier and its accompanying missile cruiser, the USS Monterey, were to have gone on to Cape Town for a five-day visit.

But a bungle between South Africa’s nuclear regulatory body and the US embassy resulted in the visit being abandoned.

The South African nuclear regulatory body insists that nobody advised them about the ships, a requirement for any vessel carrying nuclear material. The US Embassy remained diplomatic.

“The US aircraft carrier Harry S Truman and support ships will not call on South African ports at this time.

“While a port visit was considered, the appropriate clearances were not received in time to ensure that vessels could make the port call and continue on to their destination,” said Daniel Stewart, assistant information officer at the US Embassy in Pretoria.

Plans for the visit were unveiled in February and at that time the US naval attache in Pretoria, Lieutenant-Commander Louis Meier, said permission for the visit was being awaited.

Since then rumours abounded but neither news nor acknowledgement that permission might be given had been forthcoming from South African authorities.

Cape Town has been the biggest loser because more than 6 000 sailors would have flooded the city and tourist spots.

The two destroyers and supply ship intended for Durban carry fewer crew, but would still have given the city a boost at the height of the Easter weekend.

The five ships would also have re-supplied while in port, bringing additional business to ship chandlers and bunker suppliers.

Apart from that, the botch-up has denied South Africa the opportunity to make a good impression on the thousands of young and impressionable visitors, who would have returned home with stories of good hospitality and the friendly people.

And that leaves South Africa the biggest loser in this affair.

This article was originally published on page 5 of Pretoria News on March 29, 2005

Source: Independent Online (IOL)
URL: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click…/p>