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IT MAY very well prove fruitful for Bonang Mohale, Shell SA
chairperson, that the "only thing that matters are my beautiful wife Susan and
our two daughters, Tshepiso and Maneo".
If the only thing that mattered was how the public perceived
him, he would either have to prepare for a life of misery as he lives with
public ridicule or develop into an insufferable sod as a consequence of social
adoration.
Mohale is the face and voice of controversial shale gas or
hydraulic fracturing – the process of extracting natural gas from underground
sources in South Africa.
If Mohale and the numbers he and his company are presenting
are to be believed, South Africa is on the cusp of wealth unprecedented since
the discovery of gold in Johannesburg in the 1880s.
He will be the man to thank if hundreds of thousands who are
hopeless and jobless find the jobs envisaged by Shell - if their numbers and
predictions prove correct.
If he and economic consultancy Econometrix are wrong, he
will be cursed by all for being the man under whose watch Shell was allowed to
destroy a delicate and pristine ecological space for no more than a fistful of
dollars.
Either way, the name Bonang Mohale is bound to be mentioned
a good number of times when the story of corporate SA’s dedication to
profitable businesses with respect to green issues is told.
The sheer size of the potential promised by hydraulic
fracturing makes Mohale careful to manage expectations even of the hopeful.
“An Econometrix study shows that the potential economic impact that if you develop 20 trillion cubic feet (tcf) (out of a possible total 485 tcf) it will contribute R80bn or 3.3% (or R35bn) to annual GDP (gross domestic product) contribution.
"Up to 300 000 people could be employed. At 50 tcf, the number (economic impact) jumps to R200bn
added to the South African economy and R90bn to the GDP.”
The former Black Management Forum national deputy president
is convinced that Shell has the support of the majority of citizens of the
Karoo towns directly affected by fracking. He points out that 73% of the people
polled want Shell to proceed with the exploration.
“The day that 50 million South Africans say they do not want
us to explore gas in that area is the day that we will pack our bags and go.
Not when it is a minority.”
Not that there is anything inherently wrong with the
minority. “Environmentalists that are opposed to this are a necessary part of
this democracy. They have a critical role to play in keeping organisations like
ours, that are already doing good work, better,” says Mohale.
The advantage of big organisations such as Shell, he reckons,
is that they have a reputation to uphold and will therefore not jump ship at
the first sign of trouble.
He points to how BP handled the disaster in the Gulf of
Mexico in 2010 as an example of how companies with a reputation are able to
face up to their responsibilities and pay penalties for the error of their ways
“and continue to thrive”.
He dismisses the view that his company bandies the jobs
numbers about to bamboozle the jobless but hide the negative environmental
impact fracking has.
“History has taught us that the rural and poor of our
forebears have always had the most amazing respect for the sustainability of
the environment.
“This is not only in literature but also in the idioms and
axiomatic expressions. There is an African proverb that says ‘the beginning of
wisdom is to plant a tree whose shade you will not enjoy’; the proverb o seke
wa nyela sediba warning against defecating in a well because you might one day
need to return to drink from it, all speak about issues of sustainability that is
critical to development and survival of species.
Besides, the Karoo Shale Gas Community Forum gave Shell
three conditions before it could give its unqualified support.
“They said to us, just because we are poor doesn’t mean we
have no regard for the delicate and pristine nature of the Karoo. They said: we
don’t want to compete for water with you.
“We want you to consider piping water from elsewhere to your
drilling sites so that we too could have piped water closer to where we live.”
The third condition is that Shell consider employing labour
intensive programmes rather than rely entirely on the technology that the
company has at its disposal.
Shell says it will respond once government has made a
decision on licensing.
Cynics and the optimists will all have to wait for the
government decision to see whether Mohale’s outlook on life will herald a false
dawn or a new day for South Africa.
- City Press
