How the Wild Coast was won — Community rights defeat corporate power

A Constitutional Court victory has allowed West Coast communities the right to determine what happens to the land and the ocean on which they so much depend.

Kholwani Simelane is the campaign manager for the Fossil Ad Ban campaign at Fossil Free South Africa

The date 14 August 2026 should be remembered as a historic day for environmental justice in South Africa.

The Constitutional Court has finally closed the door on Shell and Impact Africa’s attempt to pursue oil and gas exploration off the Wild Coast. After years of resistance, protest, litigation and community organising, the country’s highest court has affirmed something that communities have been saying from the beginning — Our oceans are not sacrificial zones and our communities cannot be treated as obstacles to corporate profit.

For years, the Wild Coast communities have had to fight to defend something that should never have been placed in jeopardy in the first place. Their right to determine what happens to the land and ocean upon which their lives, livelihoods, cultures and spiritual practices depend.

The story began long before Shell’s seismic survey plans became national news. In 2014, an exploration right was granted to Impact Africa. Shell later acquired a 50% interest. In 2021, communities were confronted with plans for seismic surveys along the Wild Coast – surveys involving powerful sound waves fired into the ocean floor in search of oil and gas deposits.

Communities and environmental organisations challenged the exploration right, arguing that they had not been meaningfully consulted and that critical issues, including livelihoods, cultural and spiritual rights, marine ecosystems and climate change, had not been properly considered.

In 2022, the Makhanda High Court set aside the exploration right after finding that it had been unlawfully granted. But the struggle did not end there.

The Supreme Court of Appeal subsequently upheld the finding that the exploration right was unlawful yet gave Shell another opportunity to pursue a renewal process. This effectively left communities facing the prospect that an unlawful process could be given another life.

The court has made clear that the original failures cannot simply be repaired after the fact through a later consultation process. The exploration right and subsequent renewals have been set aside, meaning Shell and Impact Africa no longer have the right to explore for oil and gas off the Wild Coast.

But perhaps the most important part of this judgment extends beyond Shell.

For decades, communities across South Africa have experienced development as something done to them rather than with them. Mining projects, fossil fuel infrastructure, industrial developments and other extractive activities are often presented as opportunities for jobs and economic growth, while the communities living closest to these projects are left to carry the environmental, social and health costs.

The Constitutional Court has now sent an important message. Economic development cannot be used as a blank cheque to override constitutional rights.

Meaningful public participation is not a box to tick at the end of a corporate application.