<\/p>\n
Natural Justice Southern Africa Hub Director Delme Cupido said the proposed development in Block 1 CBK brought together concerns about fossil-fuel extraction, climate change and the rights of coastal communities. \u201cThis project brings together climate concerns with our human rights concerns,\u201d Cupido said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cupido argued that granting an Israeli company access to SA\u2019s petroleum resources contradicted the government\u2019s stated support for Palestinian rights and international legal action concerning Gaza.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Block 1 CBK is located off the Northern Cape near SA\u2019s maritime border with Namibia.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The area extends about 170 kilometres along the coastline and more than 200 kilometres offshore. Some waters reportedly reach depths of approximately 4 000 metres.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cupido said the area supported marine biodiversity, birdlife and fishing communities dependent on the ocean for food and income. \u201cThe impacts would be catastrophic if anything were to go wrong,\u201d Cupido said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Natural Justice warned that an oil spill in deep water could cause severe and long-lasting damage to marine ecosystems and community livelihoods.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cupido referred to previous maritime incidents off SA\u2019s coast that reportedly caused substantial declines in African penguin populations and local fish stocks.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The organisation acknowledged that offshore oil and gas development could create jobs and stimulate some economic activity.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
However, Cupido questioned how many jobs would be created, the quality and duration of the employment and whether local communities would benefit. \u201cWhat are communities giving up, and what are communities gaining?\u201d Cupido said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cupido said offshore projects could operate for approximately 20 years, while fishing had sustained West Coast communities for generations.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Natural Justice referred to the Constitutional Court judgment involving Shell and Sustaining the Wild Coast, arguing that economic benefits could not be considered in isolation or outweigh community rights.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The organisation called for evidence detailing proposed employment, local economic benefits and measures protecting fishers whose livelihoods could be affected. \u201cBroad statements that a project will bring jobs have to be based on the concrete realities of what will be replaced and what will be lost by these communities,\u201d Cupido said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":49369,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-49368","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Civil society organisations have called on the South Africa (SA) government to reverse offshore exploration rights granted to Israeli energy company Navitas Petroleum, citing environmental, livelihood and human rights concerns.","published_date":"","news_description":"Civil society organisations have called on the South Africa (SA) government to reverse offshore exploration rights granted to Israeli energy company Navitas Petroleum, citing environmental, livelihood and human rights concerns.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49371,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49368\/revisions\/49371"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=49368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}