- The court has permanently set aside Shell and Impact Africa’s oil and gas exploration right off the Eastern Cape’s Wild Coast.
- The judgment found that serious failures in public participation could not be corrected through later renewal consultations.
- The ruling strengthens community rights and sets an important precedent for future oil and gas projects in South Africa.
South Africa’s Constitutional Court has permanently halted Shell and Impact Africa’s plans to explore for oil and gas off the Wild Coast, confirming that the exploration right was unlawfully granted.
The judgment, delivered by Justice Jody Kollapen in Johannesburg on 14 August 2026, upheld the 2022 decision of the Makhanda High Court in the Eastern Cape. That court found that the exploration right was granted without meaningful consultation with affected communities.
The Constitutional Court also set aside the original exploration right and its two subsequent renewals. Shell and Impact Africa no longer hold the right to conduct oil and gas exploration in the area.
The case followed opposition from Wild Coast communities and environmental organisations, which challenged Shell’s plans to conduct seismic surveys in late 2021. The surveys were linked to an exploration right granted in 2014 by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy.
The Supreme Court of Appeal had previously agreed that the exploration right was unlawful but suspended the High Court order to allow Shell to submit a further renewal application. The Constitutional Court ruled that this approach was incorrect.
It found that the defects in the original application could not be corrected after the fact through consultation during a renewal process. The court said allowing the project to continue would place commercial interests above constitutional rights.
“Any other remedy would allow financial investment to outweigh grave constitutional violations and would signal that the rights of affected parties are subordinate to commercial interests,” the court said.
The judgment places particular emphasis on the cultural, spiritual, environmental and economic interests of coastal communities. It said these concerns could not be treated as competing interests to be weighed equally against economic development.
The court also noted South Africa’s history of dispossession and marginalisation of coastal communities. It said claims about job creation must be assessed carefully, including who would receive the jobs, how secure they would be and what social, environmental and cultural costs communities would carry.
The judgment referred to the 2025 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on climate change. It said governments have legal duties to prevent climate harm, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect human rights from the impacts of climate change.
The Constitutional Court stated that decisions affecting the climate must be informed by scientific knowledge, international commitments and the foreseeable impacts of emissions on present and future generations. The ruling is believed to be the first binding court judgment in Africa to formally cite the International Court of Justice’s climate change advisory opinion.
The decision is expected to influence other oil and gas cases before South African courts, as well as future exploration applications along the country’s coastline.
“Protection of ecological systems is inseparable from the protection of rights to dignity, culture and livelihood,” the court said.
Sinegugu Zukulu, director of Sustaining the Wild Coast, welcomed the ruling as a victory for Indigenous communities, the environment and future generations.
“Unlike Shell, who went to court for their profiteering, we went to court for the future and for future generations,” Zukulu said. “It is about the sustainability of this planet.”
Author: Bryan Groenenaal
