Cape Town - West Coast small-scale fisher communities and civil society groups have succeeded in their urgent application in the Western Cape High Court for an interdict of the West Coast seismic survey blasting that began in January.
The urgent interdict was similar to the successful case brought against the Mineral Resources and Energy Minister in December by communities on the Wild Coast.
Judge Daniel Thulare ordered the 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 to stop seismic survey blasting until the interim interdict is heard on March 7.
The order by Judge Thulare came after a day-long hearing of arguments by legal teams representing the fishers and the advocate for the third and fourth respondents, survey company Searcher Geodata UK and its Australian subsidiary, who opposed the urgent application.
The fishers who brought the court action argued that the seismic blasting was likely to cause significant and irreparable harm to marine and bird life in the affected area.
They said that this would in turn have a negative impact on the constitutional and customary rights of coastal communities, which includes their environmental rights, their livelihoods, their food security and their cultural beliefs.
Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi SC for the fishers argued that Searcher was obliged to consult the applicants, as interested and affected communities when it was applying for its permit.
He also argued that Searcher was obliged to obtain environmental authorisation in terms of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA) and the National Environmental Management Act (Nema), when applying for its permit, or at the very least, before it commenced its seismic survey activities but had failed to so.
“Searcher did not consult the applicants, either meaningfully or at all. Despite Searcher’s failure to meet the requirements prescribed by Nema and the MPRDA, the minister granted the reconnaissance permit and has not sought to enforce Searcher’s legal obligations.”
Arguing the case for Searcher, advocate Ranjan Jaga SC pleaded with the court to give his clients until Wednesday (tomorrow) to file their affidavits, including those by experts.
Outside the court, civic society group the Green Connection’s community outreach co-ordinator Neville van Rooy said the government could not ignore the outcry from fishing communities, especially along the coastline, who now must consistently rely on the judicial system to protect them from harmful, unjust State decisions.
“The time has come for this government to smell the snoek and to make better choices regarding the country’s economic development.
“It cannot be that our government is willing to flush tens of thousands of small-scale fisher livelihoods down the drain and claim that this is for the good of the people.”