SDCEAs Community Mobilization
Ever since the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance was established, the core fundamentals were always to make sure the South Durban communities are filled with knowledge which they are deprived of, by industries and government. SDCEA has been working hard on mobilizing communities and this year we want to reach more communities and not only the surrounding areas. If you look back where SDCEA comes from you will then be able to see that the work has been growing, projects we are involved in, and our participation is assured.
We have done great work by involving key stakeholders who are users of the ocean, however the government and greedy companies have forgotten about Fisher folks, Traditional healers, Ocean surfers and communities of South Africa. If South Africa wants to drill for oil and gas in our ocean, then everyone’s opinions are required with regards to that matter. Receiving comments from communities is a good thing as they were firmly not in agreement with what is being proposed to take place in our oceans and that it was passed by government officials/ministers on to the people of South Africa. This is one of the reasons why we chose to stand together and fight the Oil and Gas proposals through comments, Oil and gas Campaigns, Protests and Marches. Oil and gas exploration is something that will destroy our marine life and will be the start of darkness on our lives as we are attached to the ocean. Therefore, by abusing our ocean you are killing us and compromising future generations.
Hostels have been left out of these critical issues by the government who are supposed to be the ones taking care of communities and by sharing the right information with people. Instead, the government deprives their people. They thanked SDCEA for rescuing them in the darkness they were in by not knowing what is on their doorstep and the impacts it is going to have on us. We have a number of workshops and meeting discussions about the threat of oil and gas exploration which some people shared that they were happy when Operation Phakisa was introduced. This gave people hope that a lot of job opportunities will arise, which was actually false. What they want to do is suck our ocean life and leave it empty all for oil and gas.