Dear CEO of the Petroleum Agency of South Africa (Pasa), Dr Phindile Masangane, and Minerals and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe,

I write to you regarding your engagement on oil and gas exploration with fishing communities on 25 and 26 August 2022 in Cape Town.

I write humbly as a representative of the Indigenous Khoi and San Peoples and I plead with you to reconsider your aggressive fossil fuel agenda in the current context facing our world, our country and in particular the indigenous fisher and coastal communities of the Cape who depend on the ocean for their livelihoods and culture.

As the Khoi and San we trace our ancestry back to the first peoples of the Cape who were fishing along the shores of this region when the colonial settlers established a trading station here. Despite years of dispossession by colonial powers, our culture is deeply connected to the coast and the ocean that surrounds the Cape.

For us, our relationship with the ocean is sacred. It is a part of us. In addition to the thousands of small-scale fishers who depend on the ocean along our coast, our indigenous fishers depend on the ocean for our livelihoods and food security.

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Our communities are now suffering as a result of the impacts of climate change. The fishers already notice that there are fewer sea days, the winds and currents have changed and they are witnessing the impacts on their livelihoods. This year the snoek season was very short and poor.

On top of these climate-linked changes, the coastal communities from Port Nolloth to northern KwaZulu-Natal are raising concerns about the impacts of coastal mining. All around Richards Bay communities are being affected by mining developments, and some are being forced to relocate to make way for mining.

In the Northern Cape the local indigenous communities have not been consulted, but they hear that Boegoebaai will be developed into a huge hydrogen hub and that their land will be used to provide the resources to fuel this hub.

The fishers of Port Nolloth and Hondeklipbaai are already surrounded by oil and gas applications on top of the Ibhubesi Gas Field that you have already approved. An oil rig is on its way to drill on behalf of a foreign company, Eco-Atlantic, in concession two, only 20km off the coast of Hondeklipbaai.

TotalEnergies, with Shell, is applying to drill five wells right here off Cape Point, we hear. And Searcher, acting on behalf of an unknown number of foreign companies, is applying to do a seismic survey off the West Coast again. And this week we heard there is yet another application for a seismic survey by TGS.

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Propaganda

I am extremely concerned that the meeting you called this week will pump the false propaganda that we have been seeing in the media over the past few weeks. We read that you say that “fisheries can co-exist with oil and gas”. How do you know this when all the scientific evidence from around the world points to the need to adopt a precautionary approach as the scientists admit that they just do not know the depth of the damage that is done?

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You are sending a message to the young people of our communities that climate change does not exist, that we as human beings can carry on “business as usual”, polluting our rivers and oceans, and it will not do any damage to the environment and to the well-being of future generations.

You are promising them lots of jobs from these developments and yet we know from all the experience around the world that offshore oil and gas production requires highly skilled individuals and does not create a lot of jobs. In fact it will be primarily foreign companies and foreign workers who will benefit from our oceans.

Most worrying is a recent advert on social media calling on young people to apply for the Oil and Gas Industries Youth Empowerment 22/23 Programme. Most shocking is that they are being tempted by a “monthly stipend” of R17,228.

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How can our youngsters possibly refuse this sort of monthly stipend? How can you and these oil and gas companies sleep at night? You have now wooed a group of fishers to come to your special meeting in Cape Town this week, wining and dining them with flights and hotels and fancy PowerPoint presentations of projections of billions of dollars.

This is just causing further divisions in communities, sowing the seeds of conflict. I would like you to know that the fishers attending this meeting are not representative at all, so please do not consider this consultation of any kind.

To add insult to injury, your fossil fuel agenda is steaming ahead and this meeting has been called without notifying, inviting or consulting with the aboriginal people of this country.

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This act of yours disregards the indigenous nation’s right to free, prior and informed consent in terms of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which requires governments, such as South Africa’s, which has signed the declaration, to consult with indigenous peoples who have the right to grant or withhold consent for extractive industry projects.

We are aware of the services that the oceans of the world provide to us as human beings – they provide more than 70% of our oxygen and feed billions of people through the and other marine resources, and we are learning from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that the ocean ecosystems are critical for carbon sequestration.

The IPCC’s latest report (April 2022) highlights the important role the oceans play in sustaining life and mitigating climate change. This UN panel has also acknowledged the role indigenous and small-scale fishers play in protecting our oceans and coasts.

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The IPCC and the UN secretary-general have called on all parties to the UN to respect the Paris Agreement on climate change and to stop further oil and gas exploration.

Absolute desperation

As leaders we are already trying desperately to cope with the crises facing our communities – the rising cost of food and lack of jobs, on top of droughts in some areas, heavy rains and flooding in others, polluted water sources and lack of access to land for residential purposes, let alone for food security.

We are trying to cope with the absolute desperation of our young people, trying to find ways to encourage them to still believe in a future, to take pride in who they are and in their communities.

As indigenous peoples we try to teach them to respect the Earth and all its creatures, to be humble and to build a culture of care, custodianship and community where the wisdom of the elders is appreciated and bound with the energy and inspiration of youth.

How can we do this when you are selling our oceans to the highest foreign bidder and showing such disregard for nature and for us as elders and leaders?

Minister Mantashe, with all respect, while you say to us that we as Africans must have our own “indigenous oil and gas”, it is you who is now colonising the minds of our people, pushing this agenda of yours and using a call to “indigenous” oil and gas, thinking that we will be fooled.

We are not fossil fools.

But yes, we are proud and determined African indigenous peoples who will do everything to protect our oceans and the well-being of our communities.

We cannot afford to be colonised again. Please stop your oil and gas falsehoods and focus on helping us build a new relationship with nature and our Earth – a just, wise transition and a sustainable future for the next generation. DM