GOOD Speech by Kaden Arguile ,
GOOD National Youth Chairperson
26 February 2025
*Note to editors: This Speech was delivered at Fossil Ad watch, report launch. The Fossil Ad Ban campaign is launching the first fossil fuel greenwashing report in South Africa, This report exposes how companies in the oil, gas and coal industries craft deceptive narratives around sustainability to obscure the environmental damage they cause.
As we speak tonight on the necessity for environmental action let us take a moment to appreciate the tireless work of the firefighters currently fighting to preserve that nature for us and the generations to come.
South Africa is calling out to us.
Species such as the Knysna Seahorse and the African Penguin are now facing extinction. Mines across the country have still not faced justice for failing to adhere to the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (“MPRDA”) of 2002.
Our new environmental minister has 180’d on environmental progress by allowing more sewerage to be pumped into our oceans without public participation. Marine spillage laws are being passed this month while a massive oil spillage occurs close to Strandfontein which is threatening to poison one of our five largest estuaries and has already affected the extinction facing African Penguin. Government inaction is the response. I set this scene not in the role of a harbinger of despair, but rather to echo the themes of environmental action presented here tonight in the form of a fossil fuel ad ban campaign.
GOOD as an organisation holds environmental justice as one of its five core pillars of justice we seek for South Africa. A sentiment that can be seen through our statements, manifesto, parliamentary action, clean ups, protests and campaigns. We are proud and excited tonight to be announcing this collaboration between GOOD and fossilfreeSA. It presents a new opportunity for our two movements to unite under a single cause that benefits the South African people. The essence to both our organisations. Our endorsement towards an official Fossil Ad Ban campaign is uncompromisable. This collaboration also holds deep political significance. In our young lifespan we have already established ourselves as organisation which prides itself on being a vessel for the voice of the South African people. Manifesting in the form of submitting public petitions, collaborative protest action and initiatives countering community crises. With this endorsement, GOOD ensures that all matters requiring government communication, accountability pertaining to Fossil Fuel Advertising is represented through our action.
In addition, this endorsement signifies an important step in the relationship between politics and NGO/NPO collaboration. The environmental cause needs to be amplified, not drowned out by an opposing force with deep pockets. This can only be achieved by uniting under a green banner that doesn’t care about political ideology. It cares about the next generation and the kind of world they will have to face. We encourage all entities political or not, to engage with the substance of what is being discussed today. An ad ban on fossil fuel entities in the fashion proposed this evening is not only necessary, but also long overdue. The messaging being displayed to youth and the greater South African public can be surmised to propaganda.
Displaying these massive corporate entities working hand in hand with the environment to make a better future. The reality is that this advertised ‘healthy & green’ future will be a dirty, grey and nature-stricken environment at our current trajectory. A future that will be made a reality while many nod and smile believing it to be our best path forward. It isn’t.
Millions of rand is spent annually to ensure that this green image is attached to these corporations. This departments war chest is deeper than any environmental organisations in the country. This is vital to acknowledge this evening as we prepare to take up this cause and see it through till we achieve our goal as a collective.
Many green revolutions have failed both locally and internationally due to the scope of their fight and the pressure from the opposition. Despite these odds, our cause is just. The history of this great country shows that nothing is impossible, and that justice is within our grasp.
Achieving this ad ban means achieving truth for our citizens. It is only once the mindset of the public shifts to the reality of fossil fuel impact on our future that we can expect the mass mobilisation and pressure necessary to enact a green revolution. GOOD & fossilfreeSA will use all the resources at our disposal to aid in this shift.
Through joint research, public participation and civil action it is possible to make this goal a reality. Our country is bleeding green and gold as our country’s finite nature and minerals continue to be stripped from us in search of profit. We cannot standby as the sun sets on South Africa’s chance to stop this future from becoming a reality.
Media enquiries: media@forgood.org.za