The oil embargo, the apartheid state and piracy on the high seas

In the 1970s, a partial oil embargo was imposed upon South Africa. This had a potentially crippling effect. The state responded by scouring the world for oil supplies, using shadowy networks that opened them to fraudsters ready to make quick cash. At the same time the apartheid state created local conditions off the Durban coast for the speedy off-loading and transport of oil to the economic heartland some 500 kilometres inland. This paper looks at that moment in history, seeking to understand how the embargo was circumvented, with particular emphasis on the illegal maritime activity of a ship called the Salem, which sunk off the coast of Senegal in January 1980. The case of Salem illustrates the global networks the existed in the illicit oil trade and how the state had to rely on brokers who were not only ready to break the embargo but also perpetrate insurance scams, one of the biggest in maritime history. The final section of the paper looks at the changing functionalities of the port of Durban and the current plans to expand it into a massive dug-out port in the South Basin of Durban.