Seismic blasting halted in the Kei!!!

Well done to the legal teams ;) and well done to the communities.. David vs Goliath, again, the corrupt politicians and careless oil company have been stopped in their tracks. The dead breeding stock of poensies and dead whale and dolphins etc.. washing up last week after blasting commenced, with no cold water upwell in sight, should have shut the naysayers up..

https://www.news24.com/fin24/companies/mining/just-in-court-stops-shell-from-wild-coast-exploration-for-now-20211228

"A court has barred Shell from going ahead with seismic blasting on the Wild Coast as part of its exploration for oil and gas, for now. 
The High Court in Makhanda on Tuesday ruled that Shell must halt its activities until a second part of an interdict is heard.
Wild Coast communities lodged an application for an urgent interdict against Shell's exploration in late November. The communities are represented by the Legal Resources Centre and Richard Spoor Attorneys and are joined by two civil society organizations that work in the area.
Shell recently started a seismic survey off the coast between Morgans Bay and Port St Johns, which involves using airguns to send pulses of sound into the water. The information collected from the sound waves bouncing back from the ocean floor will be used by scientists to determine or map out the presence of oil or gas reserves.
The area that will be covered is about 6 000km[sup]2[/sup].
Concerned parties worry that the seismic survey will interfere with marine life. Many marine animals use sound to navigate, detect food, find mates or avoid predators. Seismic surveys have been shown to damage tissue in marine mammals, cause temporary hearing loss and stress in animals.
'A real threat' 
In his judgement, Judge Gerald Bloem stated that "despite the massive body of expert evidence on the threat to harm to marine life" Shell did not provide any evidence to neutralise the representations made by the applicants.
Bloem further stated that the evidence presented established that "there is real threat that the marine life would be irreparably harmed by the seismic survey."
"In my view, the expert evidence established that there is reasonable apprehension of real harm to marine life."Bloem also found that Shell's attempts to notify local communities of its planned exploration were "inadequate" and that its consultation process with affected communities was "substantially flawed".

"In all the circumstances, it seems to me that the exploration right, which was awarded on the basis of a substantially flawed consultation process, is thus unlawful and invalid," the ruling read.
The court ordered Shell and Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe, to pay the applicants' legal costs.
The applicants against Shell include small-scale fishers from the Amadiba, Cwebe, Hobeni, Port Saint Johns and Kei Mouth communities. "
Article copied from News24
 
We have been keeping a close eye on this matter.
Great stuff that the court decided to halt the exploration.
We need more and better info before we allow the guys to proceed.
 
Ja in the previous case the judge said there was not enough evidence, so this time they gave him more than enough..in addition to testimonies by experts and scientific papers this time, they also submitted catch records from the Namibian tuna fisheries, and PE and Hout Bay Ski boat clubs etc..The namibian tuna industry basically shut down for a few years after they blasted offshore there, longfin and others changed their migration routes as a result to too far offshore, only came right after a few years and was well studied, the cape and PE tuna classics both had the worst recorded years in the year after blasting those areas. The chokka industry had the worst year on record after blasting and as my mate who was running a boat, the chokka just disappeared for a few months after the st francis blasting.

And then last week, shoals of dead red eyes, large male poensies, a whale and some dolphins all washed ashore in the mDumbi/coffee bay area immediately after them blasting past there, 20km or so offshore, so imagine what else didn't wash up?!..That dead wildlife is currently, or was, undergoing proper autopsies to be used as further evidence if need be, and if it is the result of the blasting.

Glad the the people still have the courts to protect them...Karoo fracking, seismic blasting (expensive ouch! for shell twice in a row disregarding the people of SA), zupta/nuclear BS, unlawful crop spraying in the Kei with roundup by police/Gov and DEA/USA, arresting people for their choice of plant they decide to smoke or grow as tax paying voting consenting adults in their own space, all these and more injustices stopped in their tracks, and most/all of those I vented my words on this forum beforehand about, all halted through court ruling because some few people decided to stand up for the masses and get together with some lawyers who felt the same way and went fearlessly to go box in court and won. It makes me proud to be a South African, which doesn't happen that often these days.

In SA because of the power of social media combined with the courts, one man/woman can make a difference for the better.

Now if we can just get slot limits made law and enforced!
 
https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/just-in-shell-linked-botho-botho-trust-donated-r15-million-to-anc-20220222
"A company linked to Shell – the petroleum giant that has the government's support for seismic exploration off the Wild Coast, despite public outrage – donated R15 million to the ANC in the third quarter of the current financial year.It was the single-largest donation that was declared between October and December 2021 – the period when opposition to Shell's seismic exploration plans started to grow.
This emerged on Tuesday, when the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) published declarations in terms of the Political Party Funding Act.
The EFF declared funding for the first time.
The ANC received the lion's share of the declared funds - R22 803 969 - and out of this, R15 million was donated by the Shell-linked Batho Batho Trust.
"The largest amount of a single monetary donation declared is the R15 000 000 donated by Batho Batho Trust and declared by the ANC," the IEC's statement read.
The Batho Batho Trust has tight links to the ANC. It holds about 47% of the black-owned investment group, Thebe. Thebe has a 28% stake in Shell's downstream business in South Africa.
Toward the end of last year, public opposition to Shell's seismic exploration plans grew.
Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe – who also happens to be the ANC's national chairperson – lashed out at environmental groups and said the opposition to the exploration was a "special type" of apartheid and colonialism.
Last week, the Eastern Cape High Court in Makhanda dismissed Shell and Mantashe's application for leave to appeal, a ruling that temporarily halted the seismic survey."

Yup...follow the money. So the company that is in bed with shell, donated 15 million towards ANC coffers when they couldnt pay salaries before christmas and were getting taken to court, to pay salaries. Fishy fishy. I'm sure there is more..Lets also not forget that the same thebe investments owns companies that supply coal to Eskom at apparently double the going rate as well..

https://mybroadband.co.za/news/energy/401787-eskom-dismisses-allegations-of-corruption-linked-to-anc.html

https://www.timeslive.co.za/ideas/2021-12-18-william-gumede-whats-good-for-the-party-isnt-necessarily-good-for-the-people/
I'll try find out if there is anything further of the autopsies on the dead fish and dolphins that washed up after the the seismic ship went past the coast.
 
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