Fishers oppose mining
Group join engagement session on TotalEnergies’ plans
“How will we live when there are no fish for us to catch?” That is the burning question that brought *Leon Siebritz (not his real name) to Port Alfred on Thursday October 12.
Siebritz was among a group of 20 small-scale fishers and activists who staged a protest at the Small Boat Harbour, and asked questions at a public engagement session about the plans of TotalEnergies Exploration and Production SA (Teepsa) to mine gas it has discovered in the ocean off a section of Eastern Cape coastline, as well as explore for more marine gas and oil.
“I am a fisherman and I have been my whole life,” Siebritz said, speaking in Afrikaans.
“If they bring this noisy machinery into the ocean, it will chase the fish away. And we have seen in the past how many fish get killed when there is an oil spill. If they go ahead with this, how will we live and how will our children live?”
Last week’s session in the Port Alfred Civic Centre was one of the penultimate of 14 “open-house” engagements along the southern Cape and Eastern Cape coastline, from Gouritz to East London, conducted by environmental assessment practitioners WSP Group Africa.
WSP conducted a further public meeting online on October 16 and four online focus group meetings on October 17 and 18.
WSP were appointed by Teepsa to manage the social and environmental impact assessment process.
WSP consultant, Helen Crosby, said the “open house” format was chosen for the project’s public consultation period because the nature and volume of information wasn ’ t suitable for a single presentation format.
Instead, posters illustrating different aspects of environmental concern were displayed in topic- and languagespecific “stations” around the venue.
When Siebritz and his fellow smallscale fishers arrived, they were directed to presentations in Afrikaans and isiXhosa. Their questions were recorded on a mobile phone and in a notebook.
Crosby’s respectful responses to the fishers’ questions put some of the complex technical data into layperson’s terms.
The fishers’ concerns included the nature of the materials that would be introduced to the ocean for the drilling and further exploration, the duration of the gas mining (about 25 years) and whether they would be compensated for loss of subsistence earnings due to the undersea mining.
Siebritz’s nightmare was echoed by other small-scale fishers who had come from Ndlambe and beyond to register their opposition to Teepsa’s plans.
Fishing cooperatives represented included Klipfontein’s Moeggesukkel, Ekuphumleni, Marselle and Alexandria, as well as the Siyaphambili Coop from Hamburg.
“When they bring that equipment to take the gas out, they also bring noise and chemicals,” said *Xolani Nkosi. “The fish will be chased away.”
Nkosi said he had been fishing since childhood.
“This is our livelihood,” he said. “We depend on fishing to feed our families. Even the youth in our communities are fishing.”
*Anele Mbanjwa said: “We are scared of the impact the blasting will have on the marine life we all depend on. Already we are seeing smaller numbers of certain species because of climate change, overfishing and poaching.”
Mbanjwa grew up fishing. At a very young age, his grandfather would take him to catch fish for the family.
“Fishing is very important for our families’ livelihoods,” said the Hamburg fisher.
“My grandfather used to sell fish to tourists that helped put food on the table, as well as the fish he caught for us. As the fishing community, we don’t think this is the right way to go to secure energy for South Africa.
”We think our government should rather be supporting companies that are developing [renewable energy].”
Alexandria fisher and co-op member *Stella Geswindt, who also grew up in a fishing family, echoed these concerns.
“We are very scared of what damage the noise [of the drilling and mining operations] will cause. It will scare the fish away. If they go ahead how will we put food on the table?”
TotalEnergies and its joint venture partners QatarEnergy, Canadian Natural Resources International SA and a South African consortium, MainStreet 1549, have applied for a production right (PR) and Environmental Authorisation (EA) for an area which is offshore from the Southern Cape coast.
The closest north-eastern point of the area is about 75km from Cape St Francis and the closest north-western point is about115km from Mossel Bay.
An environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) forms part of the PR and EA applications.
WSP Group Africa has been appointed to undertake the ESIA, to identify potential impacts and develop proposed measures to avoid, reduce and manage negative impacts.
A social and labour plan (SLP) also forms part of the PR application. The SLP presents the appllicant’s plans for aspects such as human resource development, community development and procurement.
The project is currently in the public consultation phase, which runs from 22 September to 25 October 2023.
A statement signed by no fewer than 28 small-scale fishing cooperatives and three social justice NGOs (South Durban Community Environmental Alliance, Masifundise Development Trust and Coastal Justice Network), expressed shock and disbelief at the recent authorisation by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy for TotalEnergies, with partners Shell and PetroSA, to drill up to five oil wells 60km off Cape Point.
“Indigenous coastal communities and small-scale fishers, individual researchers, scientists, business persons, non-governmental organisations, academics, members of the public and the Provincial Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning appealed this authorisation. Despite 17 different grounds for appeal, [forestry, fisheries and environment minister Barbara] Creecy dismissed the appeals,” the combined statement read.
In the second appeal dismissed by Creecy that week, environmental authorisation had also been granted by energy minister Gwede Mantashe’s
department for a seismic survey off the West Coast.
“After losing their application for a seismic survey last year, when smallscale fishers succeeded in getting an interdict to stop Searcher, the foreign company returned, jumped the EIA public participation hurdles, listened to hundreds of fishers up and down the coast saying ’no, we do not want oil and gas exploration’ and has now succeeded, as Creecy has dismissed those appeals too,” the organisations said.
It was in this context that small fishers have gathered in protest over this new application by Teepsa.
In notes accompanying their statement, the Coastal Justice Network explains the main objective is to mine the gas it has discovered; however, it also wants to do further exploration.
The wells would be connected to an existing platform near Mossel Bay via an additional 40km underwater pipeline. After that it would use existing infrastructure to bring the liquified gas to shore. The first step was the scoping phase, completed earlier this year.
“Fishers and traditional leaders made comments and attended meetings in St Francis, Jeffreys Bay, Gqeberha and Port Alfred,” it said.
After these meetings, WSP produced a scoping report, the first in the ESIA process, which was accepted in May 2023 by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy.
“The next step is to seek Environmental Authorization which is required to drill more exploratory wells and start the production of gas on some of the wells already drilled in 2019.”
* Not their real names. Two of the fishers TOTT spoke to were happy for their names to be used, but we opted to keep all of them anonymous.