The recent regulation 13 complaint against environmental consultants Triplo4 – submitted by The Green Connection (on 6 March) to the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and Environment (DFFE) – exposes a failure to ensure compliance with the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Regulations regarding the Proposed Gas to Power Powership Project at the Port of Saldanha Bay.
This new red flag in the controversial Karpowerships deal specifically calls out the consultants for using information from aquaculture and commercial fisheries participants in a meeting called to engage small-scale fishers, as if it was valid information from the small-scale fisheries sector.
According to The Green Connection’s Community Outreach Coordinator Neville van Rooy, “Those people who signed the attendance register were not small-scale fishers, as defined by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) in terms of the Marine Living Resources Act of 2014 and Regulations on SSF of 2016. They, therefore, were not in a position to provide accurate information to the consultants on small-scale fisheries and fisher livelihoods.”
He says, “The code of conduct for EAPs require environmental consultants to be objective and to provide information to the authorities, even if it is not in favour of Karpowerships. They are also required to do meaningful consultations with small-scale fishers. This means that they must make the time and effort to understand who these might be and how best to involve them. The consultants should definitely not misrepresent who attended the public sessions. It goes against the spirit of the exercise.”
The Green Connection’s complaint reveals that a particular meeting was labelled as involving affected local small-scale fishers, when it appears that there were no real small-scale fishers in attendance. Small-scale fishers and The Green Connection agree that this casts further doubt over the legitimacy of the process.
Small-scale fisher from Saldanha Bay, Carmelita Mostert, says, “Those people are not small-scale fishers but people who are trying to get into fishing. Our focus is the real small-scale fishers who are suffering, who make a living out of the sea and have no other source of income. Because we have no formal training, they think we don’t know what is going on. We, the real small-scale fishers, have no knowledge of that meeting. In the meetings we have attended, we made it very clear that we were against Karpowerships. These people need to learn to respect us and our culture.”
The DFFE has responded to The Green Connection’s complaint by suspending the EIA process while the complaint is investigated.
BENDING OVER BACKWARDS, DMRE GIVES KARPOWERSHIPS ANOTHER BREAK
30 September 2021 was supposed to be the commercial close – a date set by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) – for bidders in the Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme (RMI4P).
TOSACO EIA MET WITH PUSHBACK FROM CIVIL SOCIETY, TO PROTECT THE OCEAN AND SMALL-SCALE FISHER LIVELIHOODS
This week, The Green Connection submitted its comments critiquing several aspects of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process, particularly the lack of procedural fairness, as well as the conclusions reached – notwithstanding information gaps and scientific uncertainty – that should form part Tosaco Energy’s request to undertake various activities in Block 1, off the West Coast.
RECENTLY GRADUATED GREEN CONNECTORS, EQUIPPED FOR THE POLLS AND READY TO WEIGH-IN ON COP26
Following their recent graduation from The Green Connection’s Legacy Champions Programme, these newly empowered Green Connectors say they feel equipped with the necessary advocacy skills to make positive changes in their communities, starting with their vote in the local elections (1 November) and weighing in on the discussions around COP26 (which starts on 31 October) – as part of their efforts to oppose oil and gas developments in the country and offshore.
GREEN CONNECTION’S ‘FUNERAL FOR THE CLIMATE’ (AFRICAN ENERGY WEEK) AND COMMENT ON YESTERDAY’S BUDGET SPEECH
This week (10 November 2021), we joined other environmental defenders in Cape Town to peacefully demonstrate outside the African Energy Week #AEW2021 conference venue demanding an end to fossil fuels and the immediate pivot toward the just transition to a renewable energy future.
CLOSE TO 200 PEOPLE RISE AT CRACK OF DAWN TO PROTEST THE ARRIVAL OF SHELL’S SEISMIC MONSTER, AMAZON WARRIOR
On Sunday morning, (21 November 2021), before the crack of dawn, nearly 200 concerned environmental defenders took to the Waterfront to get a glimpse of Shell’s seismic testing vessel, Amazon Warrior, as it made its way into Cape Town harbour. The vessel travelled down the West coast of Africa, on its way to the Wild Coast, to conduct seismic surveys for an estimated five (5) months.
ENVIRONMENTALISTS DOUBLE-UP ON EFFORTS TO OPPOSE UPCOMING AND FURTHER SEISMIC TESTING IN SOUTH AFRICA’S OCEANS
As the groundswell of opposition against Shell’s upcoming 3D seismic survey off the Transkei builds, the Green Connection – an ecojustice NGO that supports small-scale fishers in advocating for their livelihoods – reacted with astonishment to a press statement issued by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) on 9 December 2021.