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23 August 2026
Constitutional Court Judgment Closes the Door on Shell’s Wild Coast Exploration
groundWork welcomes and celebrates the historical constitutional court judgement on Shell oil and gas exploration off the Wild Coast.
The Constitutional Court’s judgment on Shell’s proposed exploration off the Wild Coast marks an important democratic moment in South Africa’s treatment of offshore oil and gas exploitation. The Court set aside the exploration right held by Impact Africa and Shell and rejected the possibility of simply renewing the right after the failures that accompanied its original approval. The judgment brings to an end a five-year legal battle for environmental justice in which communities and civil society organisations challenged the legality of the exploration process and the inadequate consideration given to its consequences.
At the heart of the case was a simple principle with significant consequences: decisions of this nature must be made lawfully, and the people affected by them must have a meaningful opportunity to participate before those decisions are taken. The Court found that the consultation process had not met that standard. The concerns raised by affected communities were not peripheral to the proposed exploration. They concerned livelihoods, fishing, cultural and spiritual practices, the marine environment and the future of the coastline on which communities have depended for generations.
This judgment is particularly significant because it does not treat these concerns as matters that can be corrected later through another administrative process. The original defects mattered at the point at which the exploration right was granted. They could not be separated from the validity of the decision itself. The case also places South Africa’s growing interest in offshore petroleum resources under a sharper legal and public lens. Exploration is often presented as an economic opportunity with infinite possibilities, but the decision to pursue it carries consequences that extend well beyond the balance sheet of an exploration company. Those consequences include the integrity of marine ecosystems, coastal livelihoods, climate change, and the rights of communities whose lives are intricately connected to the ocean.
The Wild Coast has now become an important precedent for how these issues must be considered. For the communities involved, the judgment is the result of five years of organising, legal action and persistence. Sustaining the Wild Coast, members of the Umgungundlovu and Dwesa-Cwebe communities, Wild Coast fishers and Kei Mouth Fisheries, together with All Rise Attorneys for Climate and Environmental Justice, Natural Justice and Greenpeace, took this fight through the courts.
Their opposition was repeatedly dismissed by many quarters as an obstacle to investment and “development”. The Court has instead recognised that participation by affected communities is part of the substance of a lawful decision, rather than an administrative formality.
The judgment also arrives at a critical point in South Africa’s energy transition debate. Government continues to promote oil and gas exploration as part of its economic and energy strategy, while communities across the country are confronting proposals for offshore exploration, onshore gas extraction, and new fossil-fuel infrastructure.
The Wild Coast judgment establishes a clear standard for those decisions.
- Economic interests cannot substitute for lawful public participation.
- Investment cannot cure an unlawful process.
- And the environmental and climate consequences of fossil-fuel development must be properly considered when decisions are made.
The Wild Coast communities have spent five years defending their coastline through the courts and decades defending their land. The Constitutional Court has now brought Shell’s attempt to pursue exploration under the disputed right to a close. This Wild Coast victory should be a foundation for how South Africa approaches oil and gas development. It shows that economic interests cannot substitute for lawful public participation, that investment cannot cure an unlawful process, and that environmental and climate consequences must be properly considered before decisions are made. For communities confronting new fossil-fuel projects across the country, the judgment provides an important precedent: those who live with the consequences of development must have a meaningful say in decisions that affect their lives, livelihoods and environments.
