The Data Room

To:
Christopher Cooter
High Commissioner of South Africa
1103 Arcadia Street
Hatfield, Pretoria, 0083
South Africa

CC:
Mary Ng
Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario

From:
Economic & Social Justice Trust of Namibia
84 Theo Ben Gurirab Street
Windhoek, Namibia

Co-signed by:
Max Muyemburuko
Thomas Muronga
Jonas Kalenga
Reinhold Mangundu

Key Points and Takeaways:

• Human Rights Violations: ReconAfrica contravened fundamental human rights in Namibia. Despite widely published evidence, Canadian officials denied these violations in internal emails and continued supporting the company.
• Detention of Activists: Members of the Namibian police detained conservancy leader Max Muyemburuko and human rights activists, allegedly at ReconAfrica’s request, in 2022.
• Surveillance of Opponents: ReconAfrica is surveilling Namibians and Canadians who oppose the project and has shown access to private messages of conservancy leaders and activists.
• Right to Information: The company deprives Namibians of their right to information by using its influence to suppress damaging stories and by placing its own content in local media disguised as ‘news.’
• Restricted Site Access: ReconAfrica has denied two Namibian ministries access to the drill sites during their official duties.
• Intimidation of Journalists and Inspectors: ReconAfrica threatens journalists, labor inspectors, and media houses with frivolous litigation. Its partners force conservancies and community forest organizations to pay the company’s legal costs.
• Lack of Accountability Mechanisms: Canada lacks a mechanism to hold companies like ReconAfrica accountable. Actions by the Trade Ministry reveal a lack of expertise and objectivity needed to address human rights violations.
• Intent to Frack: Despite numerous public statements, investor presentations, and research reports indicating ReconAfrica’s target is natural gas requiring fracking, Canadian officials claimed it was ‘proven’ the company would not frack. The company’s presentations continue to declare their natural gas targets, leaving the door open to fracking.

View or download a full copy of the complaint here.