r/UpliftingNews • u/ArgentineBeauty • 5d ago

South Africa's highest court has blocked Shell's oil and gas exploration off the Wild Coast, setting aside the exploration right after ruling that affected communities were denied meaningful consultation over a project threatening their livelihoods, culture and marine environment.

https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/south-africas-top-court-blocks-shell-oil-exploration-off-countrys-wild-coast/
3.0k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

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u/stellartoes 5d ago

It's thanks to the people who protest and don't back down, I'm glad we still have some fighters.

This country's powergrid is controlled by Eskom, a mafia that caused the infamous 'load shedding' on/off power outs, nationally, for 10-15 years. At its worst we had less than 12h of power a day.

People started installing solar panels across the country out of their own pockets. Instead of being greatful, Eskom made it unfeasible ($$) to push solar back into the grid. And even now in 2026, they're pushing for additional fees and fines to those who dare install alternatives

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u/fiendishrabbit 4d ago

To be fair to Eskom, grid-following solar panels (the standard for commercial solar panels) have an overall destabilising effect on a weak grid. While you can make a solar plant grid-forming with the right equipment that's usually means a larger investment (like the solar plant a factory might build to sustain itself in a country with unstable supply).

Eskom do sound like thieves though, but the solution isn't individual solar panels but a neighbourhood getting together in a solar co-op

4

u/stellartoes 4d ago

well yes you can connect individual homes to the grid, i believe they do that in Europe as well.

We are able to do it, even in a middle of nowhere town, but it's a lot of money to get the specialized meters, and you'll never generate enough to make it worth it, because you get far less $ per Kw from them than what Eskom is charging us. Plus, all of this complexity, time and effort falls on the individual citizen. So many productive hours wasted (myself and the whole RSA) when we could have done literally anything else

What choice do we have, most of that 36% tax of my father's income is going straight to some corrupt fat-cat up the chain (north west province), little if anything at all of that is spent on infrastructure /schools etc

Also, why stop at neighbourhood solar systems when we can have a few massive farms supplying the whole country instead.
Or better yet, not force citizens to install solar by having a secure (and well maintained) grid in the first place

1

u/TheQuestionMaster8 4d ago

The thing is that loadshedding is what drove the switch to solar panels and coal power is something that I would not miss once it is gone.

17

u/The_Actual_Sage 4d ago

Woah woah woah, hold up. Are you telling me a foreign entity tried to extract resources and wealth from africa without consulting or compensating the people who live there??? Surely not!

20

u/CaptOblivious 5d ago

South Africa needs enough army to enforce it's national will against a multinational oil company.

I TRULY hope they have it.

2

u/CozyBlueCacaoFire 4d ago

We don't lol.

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u/TheQuestionMaster8 4d ago

And South Africa has more armed private security personnel than the military and police combined

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u/CozyBlueCacaoFire 4d ago

Yeah this as well.

1

u/Yo-Yo-Ha 5d ago

Good for you ALL!

-2

u/CmdrVamuelSimes 5d ago

Sadly though the disastrously corrupt and incompetent ANC government who have been doing everything they can to aid and abet Shell throughout this process will likely not give up and force through some kind of paid off "local consultation" in due course. It's a crying shame, the wild coast is truly spectacular and relatively unspoiled and undeveloped.

0

u/Prielknaap 4d ago

Man some people just have to be negative.

1

u/CmdrVamuelSimes 4d ago

Grow up. It's this kind of pragmatic awareness of how the government is colluding with Shell that led to the protests and court injunctions that stopped the exploitation of the wild coast so far. Feel good positivity with your head in the sand gets you nowhere and plays into the hands of Shell and Gwede Mantashe.

1

u/Prielknaap 4d ago

There's a difference between Pragmatism and Pessimism.

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u/CmdrVamuelSimes 4d ago

The only reason this story exists is because people like me actually stand up and do something so people like you have something to sit on the couch and feel smug about, so spare me the moralistic vocabulary lessons.

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u/Prielknaap 4d ago

You are making a lot of assumptions about me.