When Naidoo started Linsen Nambi in 2010, it was in response to an obvious barrier: there were no South African C-suite executives in the shipping industry.
“I was working for Maersk-owned Safmarine in Johannesburg at the time, and Maersk was leading it from Copenhagen. I looked at the South African shipping companies running the industry and saw there were branch managers, sales managers, marketing managers, but all the territory managers were expats. I felt like there was a ceiling. The only way I could become a CEO was to start my own company.”
Naidoo became captivated by the shipping industry at university, after supplementing his accounting degree with maritime and transport economics. He approached his former accounting classmate Thuso Mhlambi, now CFO at Linsen Nambi, to start a company together.
“We began by offering business consulting services to the shipping industry in the areas of marine surveying and shipbroking. But we soon realized that in the services industry, we were at the mercy of the market, so we started to think about becoming asset owners.”
Partnered with a women’s organization
The company now has over 100 employees and three business units: bunkering, marine surveying and shipbroking. Together with Women in Oil and Energy South Africa (WOESA), the company acquired the bunkering division of South African shipping, freight and logistics company, Grinrod in 2018. It gained three modern bunker tankers in the ports of Durban and Cape Town under contract to oil majors BP, Engen and Chevron. Khumo Ntlha, CEO of WOESA became Social, Ethics, Transformation and Sustainability Director.
While bunkering is still Linsen Nambi’s core business, the other two business units are coming to the fore. “We’ve become particularly more active in marine surveying. In South Africa, it’s an ageing sector that has not transformed. Also, warehousing companies have found that the pool of marine surveyors in the market lack the depth of knowledge and skills required.
“We looked at our business and realized we have over 100 experts in marine logistics because we bunker every type of vessel including RoRo, dry bulkers, tankers, container carriers and reefer cargos. Being floating storage, we also understand an element of terminal operations.
“Looking at this from a shared value perspective, we decided to make our seafarers partners in the marine surveying business by providing them with training and knowledge. This created an economic spillover to products and services that we could sell as a business. We’re presently testing the products in the market.”
Naidoo says he wants Linsen Nambi to remain entrepreneurially oriented and use opportunities for investment in infrastructure in South Africa. This is all part of the shared value philosophy that fuels his drive to get over the hurdles.
Government and private sector must work together
“The major challenge in South Africa is that our ports are run by the state, so things move slowly because we have to wait for the government to enact legislation. At the same time, our society is not individualistic as in other parts of the world. It’s built on collective needs and understanding.
“The government wants to address pressing societal needs while the private sector is driven by profit. Current statistics show that the top 10 percent of income earners in this country spend eight times more than the bottom 40 percent, so there is significant inequality. This is not sustainable going forward. Government and the private sector need to come together to look at both the needs of society and those of the business environment.”
Linsen Nambi’s acquisition of the Grinrod bunkering division was financed through the South African Industrial Development Corporation to facilitate the economic participation of black women and youth in the shipping industry.
However, this type of transformation still has a long way to go in the country’s maritime industry. At present there aren’t any merchant-going South African shipping companies and most of the 13,000 ships that call at South African ports are foreign-owned.
Still, Naidoo is positive about the societal changes his company is making, particularly concerning women. At present 12 percent of the Linsen Nambi workforce is female and Naidoo is bent on increasing this number. He is proud of the fact that over 50 percent of the staff at head office in Durban are women.
More women would bring innovation
“When we started the business, we had only one or two female seafarers. We decided to address this imbalance by hiring from the bottom up so that there would be mentoring, coaching and one-on-one motivation. We want to convey that while our women don’t see female officers on board, it is within their reach.
“My understanding is that when a woman works on board a vessel the environment does not provide mentoring and encouragement on a one-on-one basis.” He is quick to add that as a man he is not really qualified to talk about women’s experience, but “I think the perception of women is because they don’t see other women in officer positions, they don’t feel it’s possible for them to progress.”
In a country where unemployment is high, Naidoo feels work at sea offers “a dignified livelihood” to women in a global multicultural industry. “By not having them on board vessels, we are missing out on an entire skills base. Then you have a very narrow view in the industry, based on men in the market. With more women, I think there would be more innovation.”
As Naidoo sees it, there are still several obstacles to overcome for the South African shipping industry to grow.
“For a long time, the mental barrier has existed that the shipping industry is not open to South Africa. But with the advent of Covid and recent shifts in world politics, people are starting to realize we need our own shipping industry.
“We are the only 100 percent black ship-owning company in the country and sadly, I don’t see the situation changing. Not only does the shipping industry here have high barriers to entry, but assets are extremely expensive. You need long-term contracts to mitigate against the risks of owning these assets and you need access to affordable finance. The cost of finance in South Africa is high and companies are reluctant to provide long-term contracts.
“We have a few major banks here that control the entire market and their appetite for risk is low. At the same time, we have legislation that makes it difficult for new entrants in banking and finance to come onto the market. The government is trying to grow the industry but until we solve this issue of funding and finance, we aren’t going to have a growing South African shipping industry.”
Nevertheless, people like Naidoo are working at it, breaking down one barrier at a time.
Images credit: Linsen Nambi
Eero Lehtovaara, Head of Regulatory and Public Affairs at ABB Marine & Ports points out that celebrating diversity pioneers such as Linsen Nambi is in the spirit of ABB’s Global Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2030. ABB has recently adopted the United Nations (UN) Women's Empowerment Principles in order to promote gender equality and women's empowerment in the workplace, marketplace and community.
The goal must be to provide a safe workplace for women so that ultimately society as a whole is safe for everyone. Kudos and best of luck to Durand Naidoo in his quest for more diversity and inclusivity in the South African shipping industry.
Riding the waves of change
The maritime industry has long been dominated by men. Old nautical superstition even held that women on ships were bad luck. Thankfully times have changed but, despite progress, gender stereotypes, unequal opportunities, and workplace discrimination persist.
Still, women like Nompumelelo Ngubani (30) are thriving at sea. As a chief mate for Linsen Nambi in South Africa, with ambitions to become a master, she sees a bright future ahead.
Ngubani joined Linsen Nambi last year as an able seafarer after serving a cadetship with another company. She got the job while waiting for her oral ticket and, once that was in the bag, she was promoted to chief mate.
“I thought work at sea would suit me because I like to interact with different cultures and to travel. Since maritime studies are male dominated, nowadays there’s a lot of encouragement for women to work in the industry in South Africa. After school I decided to take this opportunity and do maritime studies at the Durban University of Technology.”
As chief mate she is responsible for deck maintenance, inspection of life-saving equipment and firefighting equipment, and assisting the master with navigation. She must also ensure the safety of the crew and vessel, help with cargo operations and upkeep of crew certificates, as well as compliance with international safety management, monthly orders and reports.
I really enjoy being in a more responsible position now.
Dress was a big change
“It wasn’t easy at first when I was an able seafarer. There are certain jobs that require male power, so sometimes the men had to give me easier jobs and I felt that wasn’t fair. If you’re in the same position, you should do the same job.
“But I found the men to be quite understanding and I looked for other jobs. There are so many jobs on board that you can do that don’t require strength. It’s also important to keep active and stay fit,” says Ngubani.
There’s a process in maritime; you can’t stay in one position, you must learn, improve, and move up.
Adjusting how she dressed was a big change. “As women we like to do our hair and nails. I wear a helmet all the time, so I can’t worry about my hair and the overalls aren’t very flattering. But it’s okay because you can forget about all that stuff and just do your job.
“When you are seagoing it’s not so easy to see your family but that’s true for men as well. I don’t have a husband and children, but it will be harder if I have a family. Work at sea is difficult for men and women, both physically and mentally, and the environment on deck can be challenging,” she says.
However, she is thankful for the support she gets from the company. “We have had people coming to talk to the crew about gender-based violence and Linsen Nambi runs programs for us on everything from finance to wellness and stress management. There are also professional counsellors available to us.”
Work hard, be strong and patient.
Ready for more responsibility
Ngubani enjoys the clear career progression in the maritime industry. “It’s easy for women to get jobs in the industry now, but at the same time it’s not easy because there’s a stringent career process that needs to be followed. Some take maritime studies at university without being aware of the process they need to follow to get to a higher level," she says.
“I really enjoy being in a more responsible position now. The responsibilities make me learn and grow and I’m gaining management skills. At the same time, there are also consequences for negligence, so whatever I do, I must do properly.”
Despite the pressure, she wants even more responsibility, aiming to get enough sea time to apply for a master ticket and then to apply to be master of the vessel. “There’s a process in maritime; you can’t stay in one position, you must learn, improve, and move up,” she adds.
Although Ngubani agrees working at sea is not a popular choice for women, she thinks “it’s very rewarding. There are so many different departments on a vessel that you don’t only learn for your position. You interact with all sorts of people from electrical engineers to engine-room staff, so you get a lot of diverse and varied experience".
Asked what advice she would give to women who want to work in maritime, she answers: “Work hard, be strong and patient. Listen to those who know more than you and absorb as much information as you can. There are a lot of people with a lot of experience on board ships. Ask and learn so that you can grow.”
