Law is in little people’s corner

Maybe, just maybe, the little people – those downtrodden by the unholy alliance between government and Big Business – can have a say in their destiny, thanks to our legal system.

Yesterday, the Makhanda High Court finally put an end to a request for months-long seismic survey along the Eastern Cape’s Wild Coast.

The request would have granted Shell South Africa the right to conduct seismic surveys in the Transkei and Algoa exploration areas in an attempt to find oil and gas.

A group of community organisations in the Eastern Cape banded together to legally challenge the petroleum giant and its associated firms, as well as Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe, and his colleague, Forestry, Fisheries and Environment Minister Barbara Creecy.

Their legal team made it plain that Mantashe had already “nailed his colours to the mast” of hydrocarbon exploitation.

Mantashe has argued frequently in favour of various energy schemes, which would have a negative impact on the environment and communities.

ALSO READ: Wild Coast seismic survey fears extinguished after court sets application aside

He and the ANC government claim the country needs to exploit all its natural resources – from coal to possible oil and gas reserves (even if exploiting the latter means using the ruinous “fracking” method) – to uplift the country’s people.

That is indeed a laudable objective – but should that alleged upliftment be at the permanent destruction of the environment or of the livelihoods of people?

This is a significant judgment which, even though it may not bring such exploitation to a halt, will give government and large multinational corporations pause for thought that this is not just another third world country which will allow its environment to be raped in pursuit of profits which are repatriated abroad.

There should be more focus on energy which is renewable, not finite. We only have one South Africa. Let’s not wreck it.