Africa-Press – South-Africa. A high court has granted Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe and oil and gas company Shell leave to appeal a ruling that blocked a seismic survey off the Wild Coast, at the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).
The judgment was delivered by the Eastern Cape High Court in Makhanda, on Tuesday morning, following a hearing on 28 November.
Wild Coast communities had launched the court application last year to stop a proposed seismic survey. The Makhanda High court had eventually set aside the minister’s decision to grant an exploration right to Impact Africa (which was later transferred to Shell) and its subsequent renewals.
The court had noted procedural issues in the granting of the exploration right – especially regarding inadequate consultation processes with the affected communities from the Wild Coast. But Mantashe and Shell sought to challenge this.
In his papers, Mantashe argued that leave to appeal should be granted because it raises novel issues of law and an appeal has reasonable prospects of success, News24 previously reported.
Another key argument from Shell is that the Wild Coast communities did not exhaust all internal remedies – in other words, appeal the decision to grant the exploration right to the minister – before approaching the court for intervention.
Additionally, the Wild Coast communities, along with Sustaining the Wild Coast, All Rise, Natural Justice and Greenpeace Africa, applied for leave to cross-appeal an aspect of the court’s ruling.
These parties had originally sought a declaratory order on whether Shell and Impact Africa required environmental authorisation to conduct the seismic survey.
When the court originally set aside the exploration rights and the renewals, it concluded that the declarator as “unnecessary”.
Both the leave to appeal (by Mantashe and Shell) and the leave to cross-appeal (by the Wild Coast communities and civil society groups) have been granted.
The ruling stated that the applications for leave to appeal and cross-appeal “do not pass muster”. The court also said that the appeal sought has “no reasonable prospects of success.” But the matter is of public interest and should be aired in the Supreme Court of Appeal. “The parties agree that this matter is of significant importance and requires ventilation by the Supreme Court of Appeal. We also agree,” the judgment read.
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