Outside Africa's biggest oil and gas conference, they were in handcuffs and T-shirts that read "Make polluters pay". Inside, executives were cutting billion-dollar deals.

Climate activists picketed the African Energy Week conference at the CTICC in Cape Town on Tuesday, calling for an outright end to new oil and gas exploration on the continent.

And they did not mince their words.

“Oil companies from overseas have made billions in profits this year alone at the expense of people’s lives, at the expense of ecosystems, at the expense of African lives,” said Siya Myeza, climate and energy campaigner with Greenpeace Africa, speaking to the Associated Press.

Myeza branded the whole gathering “Africa Exploitation Week”. Police moved in and removed protesters who had chained themselves to a giant green payment machine prop outside the venue.

This wasn’t just Greenpeace. About 50 campaigners from Extinction Rebellion and Greenpeace Africa stood together – including members of the Red Rebel Brigade – pointing to what climate change already looks like here: the fires in the Western Cape, the floods in KZN, and the food prices that keep climbing.

“We’re here to say we don’t want to see any exploration of oil and gas on this continent,” said Judy Scott-Goldman from Extinction Rebellion Cape Town.

Her warning: more drilling means more displacement, more hunger, more unrest.

South Africa is in a bind. The government wants to attract investment and end energy insecurity after years of load-shedding. Its pitch is that natural gas is a “transition fuel” – a back-up for when wind and solar dip.

But activists say it’s a trap.

Africa holds around 7-9% of the world’s proven oil and gas reserves, but contributes less than 4% of global emissions. Yet the continent is warming faster than the global average.

Despite court challenges from coastal communities, Shell is pushing ahead with plans to drill up to five ultra-deep wells in the Northern Cape Ultra Deep block off South Africa’s west coast. Environmental authorisation is still facing appeals.

African Energy Week, now in its fourth year in Cape Town, has become the continent’s flagship deal-making forum – but critics say it locks Africa into 30-year fossil contracts just as the Paris Agreement demands cuts.

The protesters aren’t just anti-oil. They want two things:

1. No new exploration. Stop issuing new licences.

2. Make polluters pay. The slogan on their shirts is literal – they want oil majors to fund climate damages, estimated by Greenpeace to run into trillions for vulnerable African communities.

Legally, the Shell Northern Cape case will be crucial. If appeals against its environmental approval succeed, it could set a precedent for other deep-water projects from Namibia to Mozambique.

Politically, all eyes are now on COP – will South Africa stick to its Just Energy Transition plan, or double down on gas?

For now, the message from the pavement outside the CTICC was clear: Africa doesn’t want to be the world’s next oil frontier. It wants to power its own future.

Source/ Cbinewstv

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