“Civil society, traditional communities and small-scale fishers have once again been vindicated by the courts. Well done to our comrades for staying the course of this fight against Shell, to protect our oceans and the rights of those communities who will be affected.”
This is the message from The Green Connection, an eco-justice organisation opposed to offshore oil and gas exploitation.
In December 2021, local communities and environmental justice organisations including activists in Table View and Milnerton protested to put a stop to the seismic testing.
They have managed to take Shell to court – first to request an urgent interim interdict to stop the seismic testing the company had started in the Wild Coast, a few weeks earlier.
Then, in May the applicants were back, this time asking the court “to review and set aside the 2014 decision by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) to grant an exploration right to Shell and Impact Africa to conduct seismic surveys off the ecologically sensitive Wild Coast of South Africa.” It has been a tense road for the small-scale fishers who took Shell to court, back in December 2021, in a bid to stop a marine seismic survey offshore of the Wild Coast, says The Green Connection’s Strategic Lead Liziwe McDaid.
Since first hearing about the imminent arrival of Shell’s seismic testing vessel the Amazon Warrior at Cape Town harbour a month before and snowballing into a national outcry, this issue finally comes to a head, in a historic moment for civil society, small-scale fishers in particular.
Court Ruling
However, the Makhanda High Court ruled that the decision to grant the exploration right is set aside, as well as the decision to grant the renewal of this right. The decision to grant a further, second renewal, has also been set aside.
“Once again, albeit with the help of the courts, ordinary South Africans have shown that the Constitution and what it stands for, will always win over decisions that are not in the public interest. This victory is also a great message to the rest of Africa for African Climate Week, since our continent is experiencing an onslaught of offshore oil and gas proposals, which will have detrimental future impacts. We hope this court victory serves to signal a shift to good governance of our oceans which is needed in the climate crisis we face,” McDaid says.
Shell timing questioned
Furthermore, according to The Green Connection, it appears that Shell did not consider (or chose to ignore) the migration season for hump-backed whales, in addition to the juvenile turtles that would come down the coast in the Agulhas current, into the survey area during December. Yet, its own 2013 EMPr stated that they should try to “avoid surveying during December”. Why did Shell choose to commence its seismic survey during December 2021, when it should have known about the risk to these animals?
According to The Green Connection’s Community Outreach Coordinator Neville van Rooy, civil society’s court case against Shell shows that South Africans care about the ocean and the environment. “And the overwhelming groundswell of outrage from civil society – which led to a coastwide civil action against Shell’s disregard of affected communities – demonstrates that people are realising that oil and gas exploration and production can negatively impact oceans and livelihoods that are dependent on the oceans, a natural resource that belongs to us all,” he says.
The Green Connection believes that due to the negative environmental impacts of offshore seismic surveys and the climate crisis, we should halt all oil and gas exploration and that we should protect our oceans and support those communities whose livelihoods depend on a healthy ocean.
