By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
A group of four environmental and human rights organisations has now filed an application to appeal the seismic blasting by Shell off the Wild Coast that was dismissed by High Court in Makhanda earlier this month.
Shell has been conducting a 3D seismic survey along the Wild Coast in the Eastern Cape since the beginning of December, to look for oil and gas.
Concerned residents and environmental groups are arguing the seismic blasting is taking place at the expense of marine life and violates several cultural rights of the indigenous people living on the coast.
The application brought by the Border Deep Sea Angling Association, the Kei Mouth Ski Boat Club, Natural Justice, and Greenpeace Africa was dismissed, with the judge stating that there was no reasonable proof that Shell’s seismic blasting would cause irreparable harm.
The respondents on the matter are the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment, Shell Exploration and Production South Africa LTD, Impact Africa Ltd and BG International Limited.
“The applicants seek to appeal the judgment, which found that there was no reasonable apprehension that Shell’s seismic blasting would cause irreparable harm,” according to a statement on Wednesday.
The application for leave to appeal comes days after the same court reserved judgment in a different case seeking an order halting the controversial process.
Shell’s counsel Adrian Friedman maintained that there is no evidence of harm to marine life and that communities’ objections are “speculative and claims of cultural and spiritual harm merely subjective”.
Shell held firm that the EMPr under the MPRDA constitutes an environmental authorisation under NEMA, arguing that Shell and the exploration company Impact Africa stand to lose hundreds of millions of rands, so a massive prejudice should be taken into account.
Commenting about the case, Wilmien Wicomb, attorney at the Legal Resources Centre, said what they heard from Shell and Minister Gwede Mantashe in court on Friday demonstrates how far they still have to go to make the lives of rural communities in South Africa visible.