Cape Town - Amid mounting pressure from fishing communities and environmental activists for more meaningful engagement from the government, stakeholders from the oil and gas industry, fishing sector, and government gathered for a pre-colloquium event on Thursday in Cape Town to discuss the co-existence of upstream petroleum and fishing industries.
This pre-colloquium was organised by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE), Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE), and the Petroleum Agency of South Africa (PASA) to engage the fishing sector and rising concerns about the effect of offshore oil and gas exploration activities on the environment, seismic surveys, coastal community development and how these sectors could co-exist.
Speakers included SA United Fishing Front founder Pedro Garcia as the small-scale fisheries representative, FishSA chairperson Loyiso Phantshwa as the commercial fisheries representative, DMRE deputy director general Ntokozo Ngcwabe and numerous others for comprehensive engagement.
After hearing from the Petroleum Agency and the DFFE, Phantshwa gave rousing input into the lack of sufficient research on the impact of the ongoing oil and gas exploration projects on marine ecosystems that they depended on. Garcia advocated the need for a Grassroots Communications Framework to ensure actual meaningful consultation processes could be held around these projects.
In taking questions, First Indigenous Nation of Southern Africa (Finsa) leader Gregg Fick brought attention to the lack of representation and deliberate exclusion of the voice of the first indigenous people on the panel of speakers, this was met with rousing applause from the room.
Fick said indigenous people were the first to fish and care for the sensitive ocean that so many now laid a claim to, yet they were still not given a seat at the table in these discussions and on these platforms.
In response, Ngcwabe said: “Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe has indicated that he is criss-crossing the country consulting all stakeholders, he is not being selective. Consultation is a process for all, it does not discriminate and exclude anybody.”
The pre-colloquium would be followed by an engagement between Mineral Resources and Energy minister Gwede Mantashe and fishing communities today to directly discuss their concerns.
This discussion is part of a series of events which will culminate in a final joint DMRE, DFFE energy colloquium in October this year where environmental impact considerations of upstream oil and gas activities will be comprehensively addressed.