EXPLORATION HALTED: ConCourt ends Shell’s Wild Coast oil and gas lifeline in victory for coastal communities
Apex ruling overturns order that gave companies another chance to preserve an “unlawfully” granted offshore exploration right.
The Constitutional Court has ruled against Shell and Impact Africa in a landmark case, ending the companies' attempts to retain an unlawful offshore exploration right off South Africa's Wild Coast. The court's decision overturns an earlier order that allowed the companies another chance to preserve the right through a renewal application.
The case, which garnered national attention, centered on an exploration right granted to Impact Africa in 2014, which covered a vast area off the Eastern Cape's Wild Coast. Environmental groups and coastal communities had challenged the right, citing inadequate consultation and failure to consider environmental, cultural, and climate change impacts.
The Eastern Cape Division of the High Court ruled in 2022 that the exploration right had been granted unlawfully, and the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) agreed in 2024 but suspended the setting-aside order to allow for a renewed consultation process. The Constitutional Court ultimately dismissed the SCA's remedy, stating that the additional public participation process could not cure the earlier failure to consult communities before granting the original exploration right.
The judgment imposes limits on the circumstances in which an appeal court can interfere with a lower court's remedial discretion and reaffirms the constitutional rights of communities whose livelihoods and cultural practices are closely connected to the ocean.
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