Shell Plc, Impact Africa and South African Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe were given leave to appeal a ruling that stopped the oil company from doing seismic surveys of an ecologically sensitive stretch of the country’s east-coast ocean earlier this year.
The Eastern Cape High Court “found that, while it could see no prospects of success for the appeal, it would grant leave to appeal because issues of such public importance should be heard before the higher courts,” legal firm Natural Justice said in an emailed statement. The applicants who took the matter to court, including Wild Coast communities, Sustaining the Wild Coast, All Rise, Natural Justice and Greenpeace Africa “remain confident in a higher court ruling in their favor.”
