The Supreme Court of Appeal has handed down a ruling suspending Shell’s exploration rights off the Wild Coast in line with a High Court ruling from 2022.

The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) announced its acknowledgement of the decision made by the court on June 3 after the appeal was heard on May 17.

The DMRE as well as Impact Africa and Shell appealed a ruling that suspended Shell’s exploration right and renewals to the area off the coast of the Eastern Cape on the grounds that the rights were unlawfully granted because communities and affected areas were not properly notified or consulted.

Shell had planned to conduct an oceanic seismic survey in the area to explore the potential oil and gas reserves in the region before the High Court ruling halted this. Shell and its other stakeholders appealed the decision, arguing that the public participation process and the environmental management programme had both been concluded before the right was granted to Shell in 2014.

Nathan Ponnan, the judge who handed down the dismissal, said the communities had not been properly informed as notices were published in local newspapers in English and Afrikaans. “Few people in the respondent communities read English and virtually no-one speaks Afrikaans. The majority speak isiXhosa or isiMpondo,” he said.

This lack of proper communication in the local languages effectively rendered the consultation process inadequate, according to the court. The suspension of Shell’s exploration rights puts the project on hold until a new approach that ensures proper consultation with the affected communities is implemented.