Apartheid of a special kind? A cheap shot, Minister Mantashe!

Whales, dolphins, seals, penguins, sharks and even crabs and tiny shellfish will all suffer the effects of Shell’s airblasts on the Wild Coast.

Unless you have been living under a rock in the ocean, you will know that Shell and a few other companies are planning to start Seismic surveillance of the Eastern Cape Coast line to see if there are any gas or oil reserves to be explored.

Although the license for them to do so was awarded more than a decade ago by the then Minister of Mineral and Energy Affairs, they were due to start in December of this year – days after our country (and the rest of the world) agreed at COP26 to rapidly move away from fossil fuel.

Shell intends to fire an array of airguns as frequently as every 10 seconds for 24 hours a day, from a boat about 20-30 km off shore in a 6,011km2 area, between Port St Johns and Morgan’s Bay. Marine scientists says that the noise created by these blasts are equivalent to a rocket launch underwater – a sound that could travel for hundreds of miles.

Now you don’t need a PhD in marine biology to know that this would not be good for marine life – especially for dolphins and whales who are acoustically sensitive mammals.

You would think that the potential damage to endangered species would be enough to shut the whole thing down, but of course, we are dealing here with politicians, for whom money speaks even louder than these explosions.

We need to remember that our coastlines and marine environment are major tourism attractions and any damage to these will immediately impact the already struggling related industries. It will cost jobs in areas that can’t afford it as well as affecting the fishing industry, especially small fishermen – the very people the government claims to support.  

Minister Gwede Mantashe, in an extraordinary defence of Shell and oil extraction (I would love to know the story behind the story), last week emphasized that the Eastern Cape is badly in need of economic development. This can’t be denied. However, it is doubtful that gas and oil discoveries would mean a major boost to those areas – especially to the local communities.

While oil discoveries around the globe make obscenely rich oil barons (and global companies) richer, greasing the hands of politicians on the way, local communities especially in the developing world seldom benefit. In fact, they often lose their livelihoods and are condemned to a life of environmental degradation and increased health risks.

Although this usually applies to on-land exploration and extraction, there is no reason to believe that Shell would act differently should they discover oil or gas off-shore in South Africa.

I recently read a moving piece written by Barry Wugale, who was born in Nigeria and is part of the Ogoni People. This is part of what he wrote:

“Ogoni has suffered and continues to suffer the degrading effects of oil exploration and exploitation: lands, streams and creeks are totally and continually polluted; the atmosphere is forever charged with hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide; many villages experience the infernal quaking of the wrath of gas flares which have been burning 24 hours a day for 33 years; acid rain, oil spillages and blowouts are common.

“The results of such unchecked environmental pollution and degradation are that: The Ogoni can no longer farm successfully. Once the food basket of the eastern Niger Delta, the Ogoni now buy food (when they can afford it); fish, once a common source of protein, is now rare. Owing to the constant and continual pollution of our streams and creeks, fish can only be caught in deeper and offshore waters for which the Ogoni are not equipped.

“All wildlife is dead. The ecology is changing fast. The mangrove tree, the aerial roots of which normally provide a natural and welcome habitat for many a seafood — crabs, periwinkles, mudskippers, cockles, mussels, shrimps and all — is now being gradually replaced by unknown and otherwise useless plants. The health hazards generated by an atmosphere charged with hydrocarbon vapour, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide are innumerable.”

There are numerous other similar stories throughout Africa and the developing world where oil companies have done explorations.  

So why on earth do we think that it would be different for South Africa? Minister Manatashe claims that the discovery of reserves could lead to 50 000 jobs. However, as Wugale pointed out, those are mostly temporary positions and it is doubtful that the local people have the necessary skill sets to benefit from these jobs.  

Part of the regulatory is that licenses are issued by the Department of Mineral Affairs and not the Department of Environment, Fisheries and Forestries. Thus, those who are meant to protect the environment and in particularly fishermen, are not those who decide on the exploration rights.

Thus, says Minister Creecy, she can’t do anything about it. But she can. Without going into all the legal detail, the fact is that she is still in a position to stop it. 

And so she should.  

Thousands of people have protested against this – and not just the usual pale, lentil eating environmental activists (no insult intended). The protests were largely driven by local communities and small fishermen. This is, therefore nothing to do with the Minister Mantashe’s (rather cheap) shot of “apartheid of a special kind”.

There have been numerous letters and appeals to the Minister – including an open letter written by 26 of or our foremost marine scientists. There has also been a petition signed by more than 100 000 people.

So what more can the Minister want?

She indicated in a press release that she will only intervene if a court rules on the matter. Well then, what is she waiting for? She can go to court! Why is she leaving it to communities and NGO’s who can scarce afford it to try and stop this through legal interdicts?

If government is serious about the environment and our international commitments to emission targets, and if they care about the people who rely on the oceans and tourism for their livelihood this seismic surveyance must be stopped. If not, while Shell Oil and friends will go marching on to more obscene profits, our precious coastline will be threatened and its amazing undersea creatures will be sentenced to suffer untold agony for months, one seismic blast at a time.