South African human rights and environmental groups on Thursday urged the government not to grant Israeli-linked oil company Navitas Petroleum rights to operate in the country’s strategic offshore oil block in the Orange Basin.

In May, Navitas Petroleum applied to acquire a 37.5% stake in a block off South Africa’s Orange Basin on the west coast, according to media reports.

In a letter addressed to Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe, campaigners said the government should reject involvement with companies and activities they say aid Israel’s genocidal actions and illegal occupation in Palestine or cause irreversible harm to the oceans and climate.

“If South Africa approves the transfer to Navitas, it will extend a state-approved strategic resource opportunity to a company anchored in Apartheid Israel’s domestic capital market and corporate framework, making South Africa complicit in generating income for the Israeli State, investors and financial institutions,” a joint statement by the pro-Palestinian South African BDS Coalition and several environmental groups said Thursday.

The groups also said approving Navitas’ involvement would contribute significantly to climate change and result in severe long-term impacts on human rights and the environment.

The activists said South Africa has consistently supported the Palestinian people’s struggle for equality, justice and the right to self-determination, arguing that allowing Navitas to operate would contradict that position.

In December 2023, South Africa filed a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, accusing it of violating its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention over its war on Gaza.

At least 73,417 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its bombardment on the Gaza Strip in October 2023.

“We deplore and oppose the Israeli-owned energy firm gaining a foothold in any part of South Africa's coastline for it conflicts with the country’s well known and stated foreign policy stances against the settler colonial regime's genocide in Gaza,” Iqbal Jassat, an executive member of Johannesburg-based advocacy group Media Review Network, told Anadolu by phone.

He said his organization shared concerns raised by South African environmental and social justice groups and cautioned the government against approving Navitas’ operations.

“We remind our government of the ongoing international legal proceedings against the Zionist regime and its leaders who are charged for war crimes at the International Criminal Court,” he said.

The Orange Basin is a major offshore area along South Africa’s west coast and neighboring Namibia.

It has emerged as a significant oil and gas exploration frontier, with estimates of several billion barrels of oil.

Last month, President Cyril Ramaphosa described the Orange Basin as “one of the world’s most promising new energy frontiers.”

Last week, South Africa’s Constitutional Court ruled that oil giant Shell could not continue offshore exploration along the country’s ecologically sensitive Wild Coast in Eastern Cape province, ending a years-long legal battle.

Environmental activists and local communities approached the court in 2021, arguing that Shell’s seismic surveys threatened the marine environment and harmed communities that depend on the sea for their livelihoods. (Anadolu Agency)