Land, rights and consultation: Lessons from a landmark case in South Africa
4 November 2026
What does meaningful consultation look like when a company’s activities could affect people’s livelihoods, culture and environment?
In August 2026, South Africa’s Constitutional Court ruled that an exploration right held by Shell and Impact Africa, to carry out seismic surveys for oil and gas off the country’s Wild Coast, had been granted unlawfully. The ruling came after legal challenges from coastal communities, who argued they hadn’t been properly consulted about activities that could affect their way of life.
IHRB Research Fellow Judy Hofmeyr hears from Wilmien Wicomb, a senior attorney in the Constitutional Litigation Unit at the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), who represented the first community applicants in the case. Wilmien walks us through the case, the strategy behind the challenge to Shell’s exploration right, and what ultimately determined the judgment – from a lack of community consultation to historic dispossession of the communities involved. Together, they look at what the ruling means for business and community engagement in South Africa and beyond.
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Host: Deborah Sagoe, IHRB's Communications Coordinator
Producer & Editor: Helen Brown
Additional Contributors: Sam Simmons, IHRB's Head of Communications
