Resisting Extractive Projects in South Africa
We live in a global climate emergency and yet, the Global North’s socio-economic model is still underpinned by extractivism. This impacts vulnerable frontline and indigenous communities in the Global South, thus leading to the emergence of antagonistic claims and forces. How do communities resist socio-ecologically disruptive extractive projects? How are justice claims catalysed and used against hegemonic forces?
Please note that this event will start at 17:15.
In this event, we will hear testimonies and discuss scientific findings to understand how resistance to oil and gas extraction arises in South Africa. We will document the claims of vulnerable communities affected by extractive projects and discuss how such claims are verbalised in terms of contestation of existing legal and governance structure, which lead to litigation in the case Sustaining the Wild Coast NPC and others v. Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy and Others. In Sustaining the Wild Coast, South African courts stopped Royal Dutch Shell’s developments for oil and gas exploration in the area of Xholobeni, in the Eastern Cape.
The event will consist of a keynote by Sinegugu Zukulu, co-founder and director of Sustaining the Wild Coast, who will address the questions why and how indigenous people fight to protect their territories, and how the rights of indigenous people are being trampled in their own land. After the keynote, a roundtable will follow with Sinegugu Zukulu and Janina Herzog-Hawelka. They will discuss existing scientific findings on the governance of offshore oil and gas exploration in South Africa and its implications for the global imperative to leave fossil fuels in the ground. Moreover, they will discuss how competing narratives and social movements shape the context for the development of fossil fuel resources in South Africa. Moderation: Matteo Fermeglia.
Speakers
Sinegugu Zukulu is a member of amaMpondo Indigenous people in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province, a very proud Mpondo man, a storyteller, social and environmental activist. He holds a Master of Philosophy in Environmental Management degree (Stellenbosch University). For more than two decades he has engaged in activism, advocating for human and environmental rights in rural South Africa. He is a 2024 recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize and a few other national and international environmental awards. He has published and co-authored several books and papers.
Janina Herzog-Hawelka is a PhD researcher in the Governance and Inclusive Development (GID) programme group (AISSR) at the University of Amsterdam. Her research examines the role of oil and gas companies in shaping pathways towards leaving fossil fuels underground. She focuses on corporate power, legitimacy, governance and the political and social conditions that enable or constrain a fossil fuel phase-out.
Matteo Fermeglia (moderator) is Assistant Professor of Climate Law and Governance at the University of Amsterdam, Department of History, European Studies and Religious Studies, and at the Amsterdam School for Transnational, European and Regional Studies. Matteo’s research interests relate to International and European Union Law in the decarbonisation of the energy sector.
