By Nneka Nwogwugwu
International and local experts have filed affidavits in support of attempts to stop Shell’s seismic survey off the Wild Coast.
On Friday, December 17, the Makhanda High Court will hear the application for an interdict to stop the survey.
A previous attempt to get an interdict failed earlier this month.
The applicants say the survey will destroy marine life.
Environmentalists and community groups have assembled an army of international and local marine science experts in their legal battle to stop Shell’s five-month seismic survey – part of its oil and gas exploration campaign – off the Eastern Cape coast.
The urgent matter has been set down for hearing in the Makhanda High Court on Friday 17 December.
Shell is opposing the application but has yet to file its papers, which is also likely to include reports and affidavits from experts.
Earlier this month, a similar application for an interdict was dismissed with costs.
Makhanda High Court Acting Judge Avinash Govindjee ruled that submissions about the detrimental impact of the survey on the environment and marine life were “speculative at best” and the applicants had not proved a reasonable apprehension of irreparable harm.
In the coming court challenge, Reinford Sinegugu Zukulu, director of Sustaining the Wild Coast, and representatives of Wild Coast communities have asked the court to allow them to admit affidavits of several experts which, they say, prove that the air gun barrage, “which would be blasted into the sea every ten seconds for five months, louder than a jet plane taking off,” would “likely cause significant harm to marine animals.
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