Court sets aside Shell exploration right

The Makhanda high court has set aside Shell’s oil and gas exploration right which gave the multinational company licence to seismically blast the ecologically sensitive Wild Coast.

Environmental groups and Wild Coast communities which took on the oil and gas multinational are already celebrating their victory.

In terms of the order made on Thursday morning, the full bench of the high court set aside the mineral resources and energy department’s 2014 decision to grant the exploration right as well as its subsequent 2017 and 2020 decisions to renew that right.

The bottom line of the judgment was read out in court on Thursday morning. A full copy of the comprehensive judgment will be distributed later today.

The applicants included non-profit organisations Sustaining the Wild Coast, All Rise Attorneys for Climate and the Environment, Natural Justice, Greenpeace, and community organisations such as the Dwesa-Cwebe Communal Property Association as well as several individual fisherfolk

The organisations had argued that the exploration right had been granted despite “farcical consultation” of affected rural communities. They said the department had also given no regard to the principle of sustainable development or to the devastating environmental harm the seismic blasting would cause.

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