Shell stopped! A community’s generational defence of their land, the sea and their environment must be protected by the Constitution

On Tuesday, the Makhanda High Court ruled in favour of several Wild Coast communities in our application to interdict (stop) Shell’s seismic blasting of 6,011km2 of the resplendently beautiful Wild Coast.

History made. 

But also, history continuing. 

History in the making. 

It has been a bit frustrating, honestly. 

I kept trying to tell our clients – Nonhle Mbuthuma and Sinegugu Zukulu – how stressful it is to wait for the judgment. 

And they kept calmly saying not to worry. That it doesn’t matter whether we win or lose because either way, this is just a step in a long struggle. 

Which is not what a lawyer wants to hear. I want to bloody win, dammit. 

But, of course, they’re right. 

And their rightness – on this question, on the righteousness of their entire struggle for community-driven development – is why it is such an absolute privilege to represent them. The court papers we prepared for them are full of their unique moral rightness, or righteousness. 

Building a public interest case 

We weren’t supposed to be involved in this case at all. 

As the papers show, we came in at the last second as it became clear that the first application to stop Shell needed to go to court before the Wild Coast communities keen to fight Shell would be able to join. 

Plus, the communities had a different cause of action. 

This meant that our team had a huge amount of work to get the papers together. With this stress of the amount of work required I will never forget sitting down with Sinegugu Zukulu for lunch by the beach to start preparing his founding affidavit the day after it was decided we would represent him and others in a new case. 

I was so stressed. 

He was anything but. 

He rattled off pure poetry about the Constitution and how his community’s generational defence of their land and sea and their environment surely must be protected by the Constitution. With clear examples. It was an address worthy of a seasoned advocate like Tembeka Ngcukaitobi (more on him later).

As he spoke and I scribbled, the weight of stress lessened. With his clarity of thinking I just needed to transcribe.

I sat down with Nonhle Mbuthuma and it was like she was on the same script as Sinegugu, but with her own organic expression of the same story. 

The same with Lihle Mbokazi. 

The same with the stunning affidavits prepared by Wilmien Wicomb on behalf of the Dwesa-Cwebe community clients based on their centuries of struggle and her more than a decade supporting them. 

The same with the affidavits taken by the Natural Justice team from community fishermen in Port Saint Johns and Kei Mouth. 

With such clarity, it was a complete pleasure to merely get their stories into affidavits. Because they know their story. And the essence of their story is this: 

1. The sea is immensely important to them. It feeds their communities. It also brings their communities together. And heals them – just when they enter it, but particularly in partnership with their sangomas (traditional health practitioners);


2. Because of the sea’s importance to the communities, somebody should consult with them before blasting their seas. But no one bothered to consult with them when the application for the seismic survey was made; and


3. Because of this, the law must come to their aid because the state clearly wouldn’t.