South African courts revoked Shell’s exploration ‘rights’ to do seismic blasting off its beautiful Wild Coast last week – and we’re still dancing with joy at the news!
This is a massive victory for local communities fighting toxic fossil fuel companies to protect their livelihoods and our environment – including the whales and dolphins that would have been subject to deafening seismic blasts every 10 seconds.
The judgement to stop Shell is a victory for people across Africa, and everywhere, fighting for a better planet against polluting and destructive industries.
None of this would have been possible without the efforts of Sustaining the Wild Coast, Amadiba Crisis Committee, Natural Justice, Legal Resources Centre, Wild Coast communities, and the hundreds of thousands of people taking action online and on the ground. It shows how powerful we can be when we come together.
Last year, petroleum giant Shell announced that it would start searching for oil and gas reserves off South Africa’s eastern coast. The government had granted the company exploration rights in 2014, renewing them in 2021. Under the ruling, Shell could conduct underwater explosions to locate deep-sea oil and gas reserves – deafening blasts that can disturb, injure and kill marine life.
But the plans were met with strong resistance by coastal and Indigenous communities, creative protests at South Africa’s beaches and Shell stations and the company’s head offices in London and Amsterdam – and petitions signed by hundreds of thousands of supporters online.
Local organisations took the case to court, arguing that exploration rights were granted unlawfully: affected communities were not consulted and decision makers failed to consider the harm to local people’s rights – and the global climate.
On 1 September 2022, the High Court in Makhanda, Eastern Cape revoked Shell’s exploration rights, ruling that they were granted illegally. The judge also acknowledged the key role of the ocean in the livelihoods and spiritual and cultural life of coastal communities.