South African Maritime Authority
officials say they will only sink the MT Phoenix once they have offloaded all
their equipment from the vessel.
They spent yesterday removing some of the
R9-million worth of equipment onboard.
Samsa spokesperson Sobantu Tilayi says
they were unable to complete the process as they ran out of light.
The 164 metre long ship was finally
removed from the rocks at Sheffield Beach on the North Coast
The vessel is currently 40 kilometres
south east of Durban
Tilayi says they would like to start
sinking the Phoenix
He says this will depend on what time
they finish removing the equipment.
"We had to take the vessel as far
away as possible from land, so that even if she sinks [unintentionally] then at
least she's sinking where it's safe to do so," said Tilayi.
"Once we finish that we are going
to finish the rest of the trip to the sinking ground, which is another 30
kilometres to go from that point - and that's where we are going to start
sinking."
(Photos: Ray Roberts)
Source: East Coast Radio. By Tamlyn Canham. 05 September 2011 -
16:00
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