Bay screening of documentary draws full house
, an award-winning feature documentary around the controversial fracking shale gas extraction method proposed for the Karoo, premiered in the Eastern Cape last night to a packed auditorium at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.
The insightful documentary, directed by Karoo-born Jolynn Minnaar, attracted an eclectic audience ranging from academics and environmentalists to businessmen. The screening came in the same week in which the film is being premiered to the public nationally.
Minnaar did research across South Africa, the US – where fracking originat- ed – Canada and the United Kingdom and produced the work to provide South Africans with knowledge from which to consider fracking and importantly to “get conversations going” around the hot topic.
Speaking to The Herald, Minnaar made it clear that while her research and her exposure to the negative impacts of the technique had pushed her towards the anti-fracking camp, there were still too many questions and “lots of ifs” around the method and its benefits in the South African context.
“When compiling this film, my first thought was always for the poor people of the Karoo. They need jobs, the area needs development, and the country needs development and energy to do this.
“But what really needs to happen is that studies and analysis need to be done to understand the full extent of everything involved.
“Fracking is not something we should rush into as a country. We really need very careful consideration of all the impacts fracking will have on the Karoo, its people and the country as a whole before anything is done.”
Minnaar’s research produced some startling points, including that the Karoo’s gas reserves are not as substantial as they were initially believed to be, that the life spans of fracking operations in America and elsewhere are actually far shorter than they are generally believed to be, and that one of the most important questions around fracking – whether it will deliver much cheaper energy to ordinary South Africans – remains unanswered.
Importantly, Minnaar questioned whether South Africa is facing a corporate fracking strategy or one which fits in with a national government energy programme.