FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Cape Town, South Africa, February 21, 2011
Treasure the Karoo Action Group (TKAG) applauds the results of community action culminating in the withdrawal by mining company Advasol, of their application for a gas mining licence in the Stilbaai area of the Cape Province.
Jonathan Deal, spokesperson for TKAG, said “We are of the opinion that the concerted and consistent pressure brought to bear on Advasol by the Duiwenshok Conservancy, and environmental consultant Fritz Bekker, was the primary motivation for the directors and shareholders of Advasol to withdraw their application.
Other Gas mining companies and their consultants may wish to take notice of this development as a pre-cursor to the level of organised resistance that can be expected towards their own applications to pursue shale gas mining in the Karoo. Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is under fierce government scrutiny in the United States and has been banned by at least 160 communities in that country.
In the interests of the entire Karoo community and their neighbours and the citizens of South Africa, we call on all the current applicants to withdraw their applications for licences to pursue shale gas mining in the Karoo.
We moreover call on the Minister of Water and Tourism Affairs, and other ministries including Public Works and Tourism, to become urgently and publicly involved in this issue of critical environmental importance, on the basis that the effect of fracking has the potential to permanently damage the Karoo environment and its valuable and growing tourism industry.”
About TKAG – Treasure the Karoo Action group has emerged as the coordinating body, representative of a broad range of stakeholders who are concerned with the plans of oil and mining companies to extract shale gas from the Karoo basin. Popular support can be followed and joined on Facebook and at the web address www.treasurethekaroo.blogspot.com
About TKAG – Treasure the Karoo Action group has emerged as the coordinating body, representative of a broad range of stakeholders who are concerned with the plans of oil and mining companies to extract shale gas from the Karoo basin. Popular support can be followed and joined on Facebook and at the web address www.treasurethekaroo.blogspot.com
FOR MORE INFORMATION, contact Jonathan Deal on jdeal@jonathandeal.co.za or 023 358 9902 / 076-838-5150. Please quote ref: TKAG003/2/11
I have been personally and actively getting people to join the Karoo fracking protest, alerting radio stations, posting ads on gumtree.co.za, facebook, mxit, most IM servers, emailed the mayor, the DA, PASA, I have purchased 600 email addesses, in the attempt to educate those who are not in the know, or have been misinformed and misguided by the media.
ReplyDeleteI fear that our government is easily corrupted, and after all every concerned individuals efforts to save the Karoo, could be a losing battle. I feel I should do more to help the cause. How can I do this?
tanya.dollie@gmail.com
Hello everyone...surely there must be an international court that could intervene for us in the process if all else should fail...especially if the Constitutional court rules in their favour? I must say that these petrol companies have surely realised that they have disturbed a hornets nest and rightly so! We are fighting so that our children and grandchildren can seek out the peace of the open spaces of the Karoo......an unspoilt , unpolluted and safe Karoo! I salute all who have stood up and confronted this attempt to frack gas at the expense of our natural heritage. We must win...strength to all who are working to stop this once and for all. When the battle is won we should make the Karoo a heritage site and accord it the protection and care it so richly deserves. Dave Bradshaw....another Engelsman who loves the Karoo and its people! (Anonymous....not true...it is me as above , just this pc of mine won't allow me to post a comment otherwise! LoL!)
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