OUR GOALS
Our goals for 2023 have been categorised into 3 main categories:
1. Wield Legal Power
2. Create media + Awareness
3. Develop & Support civil action partners
1. WIELD LEGAL POWER
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Our legal goal for the year is to follow through with the court case against Moonstone mining. We hope to use this case as a milestone case to change the way mining applications are approved and hopefully bring a more thorough approach to reviewing applications.
2. CREATE MEDIA & AWARENESS
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Create the second film on the narrative of the Northern Cape and comparison to the West Coast’s trajectory. Create a strong media campaign around its launch with screening events.
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Run a West Coast photography competition and exhibit the images along the Sea Point promenade as well as a winning photographer story sharing and exhibit evening.
3. DEVELOP & SUPPORT CIVIL ACTION PARTNERS
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Launch our online appeals portal which is a simple and easy-to-understand tool for anyone to submit an appeal against an application and keep up-to-date with its progress.
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Develop phase 1 of our environmental education programme in Doringbaai, collaborating closely with Peter Owies.
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We will support Dom de Jesus of Run West to use running as a form of activism as he launches an inaugural running event on the West Coast in Spring 2023.
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We will formalise a partnership with Nigel Savel of 9 Miles Project to empower the youth of the West Coast through surfing.
OUR MEDIUM-TERM GOAL
PTWC calls for an urgent moratorium on all prospecting and mining for oil and gas, diamonds and heavy mineral sands until a comprehensive, all-in-one Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of this coast is completed. Guided by fundamental rights enshrined in our Constitution, this document evokes applicable environmental and mining statutes, and enforces the correct oversight of mining authorisations.
An SEA would provide a context-specific, sustainability led and integrated document that guides the decision-making of the DMRE and DFFE with correct and timely information on the impact of mining in the area contained in an application. An SEA would detail existing natural resources and biophysical aspects; identify ecologically and culturally sensitive areas; interrogate current land use types; and speak to indigenous, farming, fishing and recreational communities who rely on and utilise these areas. West Coast communities, already under significant pressure, cannot be further impoverished in pursuit of short term benefits touted by mining houses in what is an already critically biodiverse, water scarce and sensitive environment.
An SEA would provide a vital tool to promote sustainable development, which the DMRE and DFFE are mandated to strive towards. Without an SEA, each mining application is considered ad hoc and in a vacuum, which serves the mining interests and no-one else.
