Talk:South African Maritime Safety Authority

Coast Guard
This service is apparently almost exactly what is termed by most other maritime nations to be a "Coast Guard". I would suggest that it would be good to find a reference to a reliable source stating this fact, and also find a source giving the reasons for it being named otherwise by the South African Government. 2600:1004:B106:359A:88AC:BD57:5750:96CB (talk) 02:18, 11 February 2015 (UTC)
 * It is definitely not a coast guard at all. A CG is normally understood to be a state organisation that operates a fleet of ships/boats and sometimes aircraft that are used to perform functions such as law enforcement and rescue within the coastal waters of a country. SAMSA owns only one ship the SA Agulhas which is used for training merchant mariners. SAMSA is mainly just a regulatory authority. In addition South Africa does in fact have a Coast Guard, although it is a very small organisation with a limited capacity it outsources the operation of patrol aircraft. (See http://www.sheltamaviation.com/contracts.html ) It's function is limited to mainly anti-pollution enforcement, not the full range of "normal" CG functions. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 08:00, 11 February 2015 (UTC)