V&A Waterfront revokes permission for Fossil Free SA supporters to walk to the offices of Ninety One and Allan Gray

Cape Town, 13 November 2024 – Fossil Free South Africa (FFSA) reminds the media and the public that our Investment Justice Walk will take place on Friday 15 November 2024, starting at 9:30am on Wale Street outside St George’s Cathedral.

We have had to adjust the route to exclude the V&A Waterfront which has decided to withdraw the permission they previously granted us to enter under specific narrow conditions to which we had agreed.

“It is extraordinary that the V&A Waterfront has refused to allow 50 walkers with peaceful intentions to enter their precinct,” said David Le Page, FFSA director. “The V&A Waterfront is a de facto public space, and in a democratic society, should be willing to facilitate, not stymie, peaceful public action around critical issues. This decision makes a mockery of their supposed commitments to being ‘authentic and inclusive’, and to ‘deliver value to all stakeholders, not only commercial returns for shareholders’”.

Clearly, despite their supposed sustainability commitments, they are far more committed to allowing Ninety One and Allan Gray, two of South Africa’s biggest investors in fossil fuels, to remain undisturbed in their ivory towers. But also – neither of those companies has been willing to explicitly defend our right to enter the V&A Waterfront and just talk to them.

“We remain open to, and look forward to, engagement with these institutions and all others that we challenge. As global climate talks begin, the V&A’s unique contribution has been to attempt to stifle public debate about the extent to which SA asset managers continue to invest in the fossil fuel industry, the main causes of climate breakdown.”

During the walk, FFSA will use the geography of Cape Town to tell the stories of how financial investments have shaped our history, for both good and ill, from slavery through the apartheid era, and into the climate crisis.

We will highlight the critical need for accelerating ethical and socially responsible investment to secure human rights in South Africa, particularly in relation to the climate breakdown that is bringing worse droughts, floods and other extreme weather events to communities across our country – and world.

The walk will end at about 12:30pm at the intersection under the pedestrian bridge of Buitengracht and Walter Sisulu streets.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Sign up here, and find more information on our website.

For queries, contact:

Sandrine Mpazayabo: sandrine@fossilfreesa.org.za / +27 62 365 8220

Steph Cookson: steph@fossilfreesa.org.za / +27 76 090 9486