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Merchant Shipping Act, 1951 (Act No. 57 of 1951)

Chapter IV : Engagement, Discharge, Repatriation, Payment, Discipline and General Treatment of Seafarers and Cadets

161. Crew accommodation

 

(1) The owner of a South African ship shall provide crew accommodation to the satisfaction of the proper officer, and in accordance with the regulations.

 

(2) [Section 161(2) deleted by section 1(2) of Act No. 114 of 1991]

 

(3) The master of a South African ship shall ensure that the crew accommodation shall be kept free from goods and stores of any kind (except stores and furniture and other equipment necessary for the proper use of such accommodation) not being the personal property of a seafarer in use during the voyage, and if any part of such accommodation is not so kept free, each seafarer lodged in that part may recover, by way of compensation for the discomfort suffered by him by reason of the fact that such accommodation was not so kept free after complaint had been made to the master by any two or more of the said seafarers, an amount which the court or the proper officer, as the case may be, considers reasonable, having regard to all the circumstances.

[Section 161(3) substituted by section 29(d & f) of Act No. 12 of 2015]

 

(4) Any amount recoverable in terms of subsection (3) may be recovered as wages.