Cape Town - Civil society groups and activists have fired back at Minister of Minerals and Energy Gwede Mantashe’s claim that taking oil exploration companies to court is “killing” investment opportunities in the country.

Mantashe said on Tuesday, during the debate on the State of the Nation Address, that “no investor would want to come to a country where it would be taken to a court process for up to five years”.

“The attempt to take upstream petroleum projects to court all the time is driven by the theme ‘kill investment’ through the court system … We chased Shell here, and they went to Namibia and discovered oil. We chased ENI in KZN; they went to Ivory Coast and discovered huge oil deposits. That is what I describe as an island of angels that will starve to death,” said Mantashe.

Christian Adams, a small-scale fisher and member of the South African Small-Scale Fishers Collective, is an applicant in the lawsuit against foreign geoscience companies Searcher Geodata UK Limited and Searcher Seismic Australia. Adams expressed his disappointment with the minister’s speech and claimed the ‘investors” are “using us as guinea pigs”.

“Yet again, the minister fails to understand why we are upset, or maybe for him and these investors it's not important to speak to the very users of the ocean. We remain marginalised, and he continues to drive this colonialist propaganda, and developed countries are using us as guinea pigs. We are citizens of this country; we are generational artisans skilled in the art of fishing,” he said.

Adams said that they would continue to protect and safeguard the oceans, as these are their source of livelihood.

“The oceans are part of the history of this country. We will continue to protect our way of life. We shall never tire in our quest to ensure that our children’s children will still be able to fish these waters,” Adams added.

Liziwe McDaid, strategic lead at The Green Connection, who has also been vocal against the seismic survey by Searcher, fired back at the minister and said that South African communities approach the courts because their rights are being violated.

“We would assume that the rights of South Africans are more important than those of foreign investors. Community groups rely on the strict application of environmental laws to protect their rights, and have to go to court to protect these rights,” McDaid said.

Civil Society Organisation supporting small-scale fishing communities says that Mantashe’s utterances seek to vilify efforts of local communities to have their right to food and culture.

“We need to redirect funding efforts towards ensuring a just transition to renewable energy that will not devastate small-scale fishing communities and the marine resources of coastal communities,” they added.

IOL