An Open Letter to The South African President Cyril Ramaphosa Minister Gwede Mantashe - Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, and Minister Barbara Creecy - Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Regarding seismic surveys off the South African coastline

The document argues that offshore seismic surveying is fundamentally damaging to marine ecosystems and contradicts South Africa's COP26 commitments to transition from hydrocarbons to renewables. The authors highlight legal deficiencies in the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA) that allow these surveys to bypass full environmental impact assessments and criticize the outdated Environmental Management Programme (EMPr) used for Shell Oil's surveys off the Transkei Coast. They call for a halt to all planned surveys, a review of EIA regulations, and the commissioning of a Strategic Environmental Assessment for the South African Exclusive Economic Zone.

• Offshore seismic surveying uses high-amplitude, low-frequency air gun pulses that cause immediate and long-term negative impacts on marine life, ranging from plankton to whales and dolphins, and threatens sustainable blue economies.
• The Environmental Management Programme (EMPr) used to permit Shell Oil's surveying off the Transkei Coast is considered invalid because it was completed in June 2013 and fails to incorporate recent scientific evidence or independent social and ecological impact audits.
• Current South African legislation under the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA) contains a deficiency that permits speculative seismic surveys to avoid full environmental impact assessment (EIA) processes.

APA

Centre for Environmental Rights (2021). An Open Letter to The South African President Cyril Ramaphosa Minister Gwede Mantashe - Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, and Minister Barbara Creecy - Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Regarding seismic surveys off the South African coastline. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/open-letter-sa-marine-experts-final-2-dec-2021.pdf?x21779

Chicago

Centre for Environmental Rights. An Open Letter to The South African President Cyril Ramaphosa Minister Gwede Mantashe - Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, and Minister Barbara Creecy - Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Regarding seismic surveys off the South African coastline. 2021. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/open-letter-sa-marine-experts-final-2-dec-2021.pdf?x21779.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Centre for Environmental Rights |title=An Open Letter to The South African President Cyril Ramaphosa Minister Gwede Mantashe - Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, and Minister Barbara Creecy - Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Regarding seismic surveys off the South African coastline |date=2 December 2021 |url=https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/open-letter-sa-marine-experts-final-2-dec-2021.pdf?x21779 |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{centreforenvironmentalrights2021open, author = {{Centre for Environmental Rights}}, title = {{An Open Letter to The South African President Cyril Ramaphosa Minister Gwede Mantashe - Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, and Minister Barbara Creecy - Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Regarding seismic surveys off the South African coastline}}, publisher = {Centre for Environmental Rights}, year = {2021}, month = dec, url = {https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/open-letter-sa-marine-experts-final-2-dec-2021.pdf?x21779}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }