TotalEnergies: You Have No Place in Africa’s Energy Future

5 May 2025

We, the undersigned organisations from across South Africa and the African continent, are united in our unequivocal condemnation of TotalEnergies and its destructive fossil fuel operations. As communities and activists demonstrate outside Total’s offices in Johannesburg and coastal communities gather outside the Western Cape High Court in Cape Town, we send a clear and urgent message: Total must back off.

We stand in solidarity with coastal communities in the Western Cape of South Africa and give our full support to The Green Connection and Natural Justice who have brought a critical judicial review against the environmental authorisation granted to TotalEnergies to conduct offshore oil and gas drilling along the pristine coastline from Cape Town to Cape Agulhas. 

The authorisation process for what is known as Block 5/6/7 was riddled with procedural and substantive failures: from ignoring climate change impacts and transboundary risks, to neglecting the voices and livelihoods of small-scale fishers and coastal communities. And now TotalEnergies wants Shell to take over, just as it's backing away from this contentious block. But this does not mean Total is done with its fossil fuel agenda.

Whilst Total intends to withdraw from Block 5/6/7 entirely, it has doubled down on its efforts to exploit resources on South Africa’s coastline, with a new proposal for well drilling in the southern part of the Deep Water Orange Basin block, despite ongoing litigation in respect of its environmental authorisation for exploration well drilling in the north of the same block.

Total’s ruthless extraction and expansion of fossil fuel projects is not happening in isolation. From the devastation wrought by Total’s East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) in Uganda and Tanzania, to the violence and displacement surrounding its LNG project in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique — Total’s track record across Africa is one of exploitation, environmental destruction, and impunity. It is clear: Total does not serve the interests of our people or our planet, it pursues profits at all costs.

We reject any attempts by Total to continue fossil fuel exploration off our coasts. We reject their manipulative legal manoeuvres and the greenwashing of their extractive agenda. We reject their attempts to lock our workers into these polluting projects. And we reject the notion that there is any place for their toxic business model in the developmental trajectory of our country, our continent, or our planet.

We assert that Africa’s energy future must be shaped by the principles of climate justice, energy sovereignty and community and worker ownership and control, not the profiteering motives of transnational corporations. The continent is rich in renewable energy potential and our communities are already advancing innovative, locally-led solutions. Rather than deepening dependency on destructive fossil fuels, Africa must invest in and scale up these clean, equitable alternatives that protect ecosystems, respect Indigenous and local knowledge and uplift our people.

Total, your time in Africa is up. We will not stand by as you gamble with our oceans, our climate, and our communities. We demand you leave – for good.

This letter is issued on behalf of organisations and movements committed to a just, sustainable, and socially owned energy future for Africa. We call on all aligned organisations to sign on in solidarity.