Page 33 - Maritime Book 1

“I was 24 years old, but I put my application in anyway and was called for an interview in Cape Town. It went very well and Captain Jones told me I wasn’t going home, but would be going to a navy camp from September to December 1995.
“When our group nished the camp we were sent home again and told, ‘Don’t call us. We’ll call you.’ So I went back to driving taxis until 19 January 1996 when I received a call from the Cape Peninsula Technikon, advising that I had two days to register. I had a new-born at home and didn’t even have a bag to pack my things in, but two days later I went straight from Cape Town station to class, having been met by Portnet’s Human Resources Of cer who drove me to Tech.
“I worked hard in class and then did my sea-time, eventually receiving my Of cer’s ticket in 1999, after which I worked as a trainee tug master before qualifying as a tug master six months later in September.”
That same month Captain Lekala was selected to be part of the rst group to undergo accelerated marine pilot training in Rotterdam. On his return he chose to work in the Port of Saldanha as a trainee marine pilot, qualifying in 2001.
Shortly thereafter he was relocated to the Port of East London where they needed marine pilots, and within a few months was offered the position of Harbour Master of the Port of East London, when Captain Benny Swemmer took early retirement.
“I didn’t think I was ready, but was told there was no absolute science that decided when a person was ready to become a Harbour Master, and that is how I became the youngest Harbour Master at TNPA.”
His hard work was recognised when he won the Eagle Award in the annual Transnet Chief Executive’s Awards in 2004. That same year he was appointed as Harbour Master of the Port of Cape Town.
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