Following President Ramaphosa’s Youth Day speech last week – which mostly focused on the unprecedented high unemployment rate and lack of opportunities – young small-scale fishers, along the coast, say they are concerned that government does not recognise their value as South Africans who are self-employed and trying to create sustainable livelihoods for themselves and their communities, from the ocean.

It has been two years since The Green Connection, under its Who Stole Our Oceans campaign, started working with coastal communities whose livelihoods are being threatened by offshore oil and gas projects. The initiative is focused on protecting the oceans, particularly through opposing offshore oil and gas.

Since the announcement of Shell seismic surveys on the Wild Coast in the Eastern Cape last year, outraged communities and environmental organisations took the company to court following a flawed Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and failed community consultations. On 28 December 2021, the Makhanda High court ordered Shell to stop this seismic survey.

Since the announcement of Shell seismic surveys on the Wild Coast in the Eastern Cape last year, outraged communities and environmental organisations took the company to court following a flawed Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and failed community consultations.

In the run-up to next week’s highly contentious court hearings to stop Shell’s seismic surveys and any further bids to explore the Wild Coast for offshore oil and gas, communities in the Eastern Cape are speaking out against traditional leaders who, at the end of April, following secret meetings with Minister Gwede Mantashe (in February 2022), agreed to support oil and gas developments. However, the communities, who are applicants in the case, were not consulted.

Today 25 May #AfricaDay2022 in Cape Town, The Green Connection launched its public awareness and information sharing campaign – which is part of a bigger initiative, called Who Stole Our Oceans – in a bid to stop further government investment in fossil fuels, particularly offshore oil, and gas.

On Freedom Day, small-scale fishing communities in the West Coast and in Gqeberha held pickets to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with developments in the Karpowership saga, while fishers from Port St. John’s Eastern Cape demonstrated their love for the ocean with a clean-up.

On Monday (25 April), the Green Connection launched an application in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria seeking to review and set aside the National Energy Regulator of South Africa’s (Nersa) decision to grant three electricity generation licenses to the Karpowership SA companies to operate powerships in the ports of Saldanha, Ngqura (Coega) and Richards Bay.

The Green Connection has achieved excellent results in supporting and empowering communities to stand up for their environmental rights. The key to this success sits with the passionate and dedicated Community Outreach Coordinator, Neville van Rooy. Christy Bragg spoke to him about what keeps his fire burning, his interest to protecting the earth, and his travel journey.

Just months after two separate High Courts granted interim urgent interdicts against two different seismic surveys off the East and West Coasts – both predominantly as a result of insufficient consultation with affected communities – Tosaco Energy received authorisation from the Department of Mineral Resources and Environment (DMRE) to proceed with seismic blasting in Block 1 (from Alexander Bay to Hondeklipbaai, off the West Coast of South Africa), despite communities’ calls for improved public consultation.