IFAA, in partnership with Surplus and Shack Dwellers International invites you to a public forum entitled ‘How South Africa and Corporates are fueling the crisis in Cabo Delgado (Mozambique)’, presented by Ilham Rawoot of Justica Ambiental/Friends of the Earth Mozambique. For IFAA this will be our first live event/online since the onset of the Covid-19 Pandemic. It will take place at the Shack Dwellers International conference venue that is situated just above the Surplus store at 302 Albert Road, Woodstock, Cape Town on Saturday, 11th September at 11 am. It will also be live-streamed via Zoom and Facebook. Please find the details below.
Ilham Rawoot works with Justiça Ambiental/ Friends of the Mozambique, as coordinator of the Say No to Gas! Campaign, and previously coordinated the Southern Africa Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power. She is involved in activism against the extractives and arms industries, and corporate impunity. She also works as a freelance journalist, having written for Al Jazeera, the Mail and Guardian and Business Day.
The offshore gas industry in Cabo Delgado province in the north is worth over $50 billion, but no gas has yet been extracted. All the giant fossil fuel companies, financiers and states are involved in this industry -Total, Eni, ExxonMobil, HSBC, BP, Standard Bank, BNP Paribas are just a few. The US, UK, China, Japan, Korea, France, Netherlands, India and South Africa are all major financiers, extracting, purchasers.
Already the gas industry has forced hundreds of families from rural fishing and farming communities out of their homes and away from their farmland and fishing grounds, in order to build the onshore support facilities. Journalists reporting on the industry, and activists, have been illegally detained, tortured, and some have disappeared. The industry has also been inextricably linked to the violence in the region, in fact is one of the core elements and catalysts, creating almost 1 million refugees. Now the Rwandan army has been brought in, led by a general known for ‘exterminating’ government opponents in exile and war crimes during the genocide.
The campaign is very international, considering that all of the companies and states involved are foreign, and gets valuable immediate information from communities on the ground to flow to the international community. We work with partner organisations from the home countries of these companies to push them to get out of Mozambique, using several strategies and tactics: company confrontation, court cases, policy amendments, UN and EU assistance, protests/physical actions and artistic actions like ad-hacking and online concerts.
South Africa’s role is crucial to the industry. The South African government is spending $1 billion of taxpayers’ money financing this project, three major SA banks are also providing financing and the SANDF is in Cabo Delgado as part of a SADC mission. South African mercenaries indiscriminately killed Mozambican civilians and another South African company is now providing weapons and training. The South African public and civil society has an important role to play in protecting Mozambican civilians and there are particular ways in which this can be achieved.
Ilham’s presentation will cover information on the gas industry, the situation people are facing on the ground, the link between the industry and the violence, the campaign, South Africa’s role and what can be done in South Africa.
You are invited to a Zoom meeting: How South Africa and Corporates are fueling the crisis in Cabo Delgado
When: Sep 11, 2021 11:00 AM Johannesburg
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://cutt.ly/RWOdh4j
Facebook Livestream: https://www.facebook.com/theIFAAforum
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.