South African Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Gwede Mantashe gave a press conference, Dec. 8, in which he let loose on the imperial green juggernaut being deployed against his country. Having watched as the nation’s vast coal resources were sequestered—with President Cyril Ramaphosa’s signing of the Just Transition compact last month at the CRAP26 in Glasgow—subsequent attempts by South Africa to explore an offshore natural gas field are now being met by frenzied cries from green banshees.
Shell Oil is proposing to do a simple seismic survey of a suspected gas field off the nation’s east coast, prompting complaints rising to a fevered peak. After reviewing the “accepted science” of seismic explorations, and the additional (new) precautions taken to “mitigate” against accidental harm to sea life by surveyors, Mantashe turned to the larger question of the spreading (gan)green. The Minister stated: “I cannot help but ask myself, are these objections meant to ensure the status quo remains in Africa, in general, and South Africa, in particular? That is, the status quo with regards to energy poverty, high unemployment, high debt to GDP ratio at country level and economies that are not growing and, in some cases, jobless economic growth. Could it be possible that this is an extreme pure love for the environment—or an unrelenting campaign to ensure that Africa and South Africa do not see the investment inflows they need?”