Cape Town - After months of protests and frustration, West Coast fishing communities, environmental groups and a civil society movement celebrated another enormous victory in the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday.
Judge Daniel Thulare ruled in their favour and stopped Searcher Seismic from continuing their seismic survey of the west and south-west coast.
Thulare initially ordered an interim interdict that halted Searcher from its oil and gas exploration earlier this year, after an application was made that sought an urgent order interdicting six respondents, including Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe and Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Barbara Creecy, as well as the Petroleum Agency of
South Africa, from commencing Searcher’s seismic survey.
The fishing communities and groups argued that the seismic blasting would likely cause significant harm to marine and bird life in the affected area, which would then have a negative impact on the constitutional and customary rights of coastal communities.
One of the applicants, Langebaan small-scale fisher Solene Smith, was overcome with emotion after the judgment, and Thulare’s recognition of their environmental rights, livelihoods, access to food security and cultural beliefs.
“Today is a victory for me and my community. I always knew we would win because they did not take into consideration our customary rights and acknowledge small-scale fishers in their consultation process, as they did with other commercial fishers.”
Another applicant in the case, Christian Adams, a small-scale fisher from Steenberg Cove on the West Coast, said the area Searcher was blasting was a particularly rich and productive ecosystem that played an integral role in sustaining the livelihoods of small-scale fishers like himself, who lived along this part of the coast.
Masifundise Development Trust programme manager Carmen Mannarino welcomed the judgment as well.
“We were hoping the judgment would go this way, but we are also so happy about the justification given by the judge in terms of why he ruled in our favour – particularly his reference to equality before the law, the idea that small-scale fishers are as equally entitled as commercial fishers and other parties to be heard in terms of the seismic survey and its consultations,” she said.
Mannarino said another key takeaway from the judgment was that an email or a communication did not suffice as public participation, and that other measures should have been taken to carry out the process.
“We have won in court, but what we have really won is that the rights of the Constitution have been upheld, that everyone is equal before the law and therefore everyone has the right to be heard.”
The Green Connection’s strategic lead, Liziwe McDaid, said: “In this case, the fishers were almost deliberately excluded in the design of the consultation, so we are really hoping that the message we are sending to oil companies and everyone else is that the rule of law in South Africa will be upheld by the courts.”