Summary:
Reconnaissance Energy Africa is a Canadian oil and gas drilling company which operates in Namibia, Botswana, and Angola exploring for oil and gas. In 2019, Reconnaissance Energy Africa obtained a license allowing them to carry out exploratory oil drilling in part of the Okavango Delta. The Okavango Delta is a large freshwater wetland which supplies drinking water to a drought-stricken region susceptible to adverse climate change effects and is inhabited by diverse plant and animal species. Communities in the Okavango Delta in Namibia (represented by the Ncumcara Community Forest Management Committee) opposed these exploratory drilling practices and contested Reconnaissance Energy Africa being granted the license.
The license was later amended, against which the communities objected in a letter addressed to the Environmental Commissioner on 27 May 2022. This letter went unanswered. The communities then appealed to the Minister of Mines and Energy asking for the decision to grant the oil drilling license be rescinded or reviewed. This complaint went unanswered. The communities then filed a complaint with the Namibian High Court asking the Court to require the Minister to respond and to prohibit further drilling. The case was heard in the High Court on 13 July 2022 during which the communities claimed that their (procedural) human rights were being infringed because of the drilling on community-managed land which was already vulnerable to climate change. The communities further argued that they had not been properly consulted as is required by Namibian law, and that the drilling jeopardises the region’s only source of freshwater by making it vulnerable to pollution and exposes already endangered wildlife to increased risk.
The communities sought an urgent interim junction prohibiting any further drilling in the region. The High Court considered section 50 of Namibia’s Environmental Management Act 7 of 2007 in terms of which appeals against the Environmental Commissioner must be brought before and decided by the Minister of Mines and Energy. The Court therefore held that it did not have jurisdiction, and that its intervention would only be allowed where the Minister refuses to make any decision, or if the Minister has already made a decision. The Minister had not done either, meaning that it was still within the Minister’s jurisdiction to consider the communities’ appeals for the drilling licence to be revoked and the drilling to stop. The High Court therefore rejected the communities’ requests, and Reconnaissance Energy Africa continues to conduct exploratory oil drilling in the Okavango Delta. The communities were ordered to pay the legal costs.
Text of the decision:
The text of the decision can be consulted and downloaded below.
Date of decision:
29 July 2022
Status:
Decided
Court:
High Court of Namibia, Main Division, Windhoek Judgment
Suggested citation:
Ncumcara Community Forest Management Association v The Environmental Commissioner (HC-MD-CIV-MOT-GEN2022/00289) [2022] NAHCMD 380 (29 July 2022)
Last updated:
3 August 2026
Credits:
This database entry was contributed by Michaela O’Donoghue, LLD Candidate in the Urban Law and Sustainability Governance Chair, Stellenbosch University, South Africa