SA charges into Antarctic talks — ‘Not a pacifist’ but definitely pro-penguin

The 47th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) kicks off in Milan, Italy, on Tuesday, and South Africa — still the only African country with decision-making status — has signalled a pivot in tone and substance.

Ashley Johnson of South Africa’s Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE), will lead the national delegation to the annual closed meeting of 29 states who make all the big decisions on Antarctica’s present and future. 

This will be Johnson’s first ATCM. 

In an interview with Daily Maverick, Johnson acknowledged criticisms of South Africa’s underwhelming ATCM performance in recent years. Yet, he says his mandate now is to reestablish South Africa as a conservation-minded, science-driven actor — a credible voice for the African continent.

“I’m not a pacifist,” says Johnson, an oceanographer by training and acting director for research and specialist monitoring in DFFE’s oceans and coasts division. “I cannot attend a meeting and say nothing. I’m now surrounded by a competent team from DFFE, the science department and international relations, and a diplomat from South Africa’s embassy in Italy.

“Our agenda for this meeting is to be the African voice.”

While new to the treaty system, Johnson says he is no stranger to diplomacy. 

Among others, he stresses his role in establishing South Africa as a more prominent force at Unesco’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission in 2005.

“South Africa became the leader of the Africa group,” he says, “and commission vice-chair.”

From observer to influencer

In 2024, South Africa failed to submit a single independent paper at the ATCM — a marked absence compared to the multiple submissions from other consultative parties. (For instance, Russia and Australia submitted 10 and 15, respectively.)

This year, Johnson’s team is involved in no fewer than eight ATCM papers— five independent and three co-sponsored submissions on science, conservation, compliance and Antarctic gateway operations. 

“I was asked by DFFE Minister Dion George to lead the delegation to turn things on their head,” he says. George, a member of the Democratic Alliance, had inherited the department’s reins from the ANC with the establishment of the coalition government one year ago.

“I said I’m not going to a meeting where we will not submit anything.”

One proposal seeks area protection for emperor penguins — a bold statement given that Antarctica’s most iconic flightless birds are a geopolitical minefield, with China and Russia habitually using the ATCM to block their protection. 

Another paper, tabled with Australia as lead proponent, outlines a plan to “create a network amongst the Antarctic gateway cities in Australia, New Zealand, Chile and Argentina to learn from each other”. 

Johnson says his own plan includes working with the city of Cape Town to build a dedicated space — like a museum— to give the chart-topping tourist destination a more recognisable Antarctic identity.

“The team has really worked,” says Johnson. “I want to break this mold.” 

A voice for ‘conservation’

South Africa’s negotiating position at the ATCM, according to Johnson, is led by three lodestars: protection, conservation and “responsible use”.

“The original idea behind the Antarctic Treaty System was to maintain the Antarctic as a peaceful environment not to be disturbed, not owned by anyone,” says Johnson, which represents a delegation that rejects the idea of colonial-style territorial claims. 

“Conservation and protection were the premise for establishing it,” he argues.

Mining is banned in Antarctica, but one state concedes it has pursued the “overwhelming majority” of oil and gas resource prospecting there, citing both geopolitical intent and, when questioned by Daily Maverick, legal scientific research. That state is Russia, whose Rosgeo mineral explorer has actively searched for oil and gas in the Southern Ocean over decades — using Cape Town as a logistics port to announce in 2020 some 70 billion tons of hydrocarbons off East Antarctica. (It did not mention recoverability estimates.) 

In a recent Daily Maverick webinar, experts argued that these operations are “mineral resource activities”.

“The science we conduct in the Antarctic must be done in a responsible manner,” counters Johnson, thus suggesting an environmental negotiating position that opposes such activities. “And we would always then expect that from the other treaty members.”

Revamping the South African National Antarctic Programme?

On a recent demonstration cruise aboard the country’s national polar research vessel, the SA Agulhas II, Minister George described himself as the head of the South African National Antarctic Programme. 

Every DFFE minister is, in fact, the head of the Antarctic division, but rarely have ministers in charge of this department since the advent of democracy in 1994 linked themselves to the polar portfolio in such direct terms. 

And so it is Johnson’s job to report to George and sort out the infrastructure humdingers Daily Maverick flagged at South Africa’s sub-Antarctic research station in March. Among others, we uncovered failing diesel generators at the Marion Island base, since replaced, and fears among scientists that fragmented management would be the death knell of the entire programme. 

When asked, Johnson says a streamlined approach for South Africa’s operational and research interests is both practical and symbolic of a new chapter. 

“The interdependencies are too big for them to be separated,” he says. “The last few months have been used to create a process that is inculcated into the memory of the system, rather than being dependent on any one individual.”

South Africa’s ace: A top icebreaker and the Southern Ocean

The thing that gets Johnson waxing lyrical more than any other is oceanography. 

Beneath the tip of the African continent churns one of the most scientifically prized ocean systems on Earth. It’s here that warm and cold currents from the Indian and Atlantic Oceans collide, and massive eddies spin off into global circulation patterns.

“To deconstruct all that scientifically takes a lot of effort,” says Johnson.

At the centre of this footprint is the SA Agulhas II, the country’s icebreaking research and logistics vessel. Johnson says he wants to reposition the ship as a high-performance scientific platform and a diplomatic asset. 

In 2022, she was used to track down Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance wreck.

New collaborations are being discussed, including joint research with French and Norwegian scientists during upcoming voyages. 

“I want the vessel to be used as optimally as possible,” Johnson says, citing student training as a national priority.

South Africa steps ahead, the US steps back

In June, the South African anti-apartheid activist and lawyer Cormac Cullinan netted the Royal Geographical Society’s Shackleton medal for a campaign to transform the Antarctic environment into a legal person who can be defended in court. 

That makes this South African the first-ever Antarctic winner of the prestigious polar medal that has traditionally focused on the Arctic.

The Pretoria University-educated Professor Steven Chown, based at Australia’s Monash University since 2012, is one of the world’s most cited Antarctic scientists with an H-Index of 112. 

But while South Africa, despite tectonic social problems, continues to invest in its polar footprint, the US — the treaty’s architect — has proposed a 71% budget cut for polar research in the 2026 financial year.

Given Trump’s obsession with expanding the US icebreaker fleet, most puzzling is the decision to end the lease of the Nathaniel B Palmer — the sole back-up to the aging US Polar Star icebreaker. 

Usually cautious experts have suggested that the US may even withdraw from the treaty to claim and mine the continent. 

Asked about the US withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement, Johnson says: “Irrespective of what the Trump administration thinks about climate change, South Africa’s management regime is built on reliable science. 

“I don’t see why — together with all other member states who believe in what the science is telling us — we need to change our position on climate change.”

Authoritarian allies in Milan

The treaty is the only existing legal dam holding back a neocolonial land grab. On the other hand, the ATCM’s insistence on holding its annual talks behind closed doors, and preventing the press from observing the substance of those talks, are reliable indicators of this system’s insecurities.  

Make no mistake: the ‘frozen’ territories claimed by seven states may seem out of sight at the bottom of the planet, but to the claimants they are massively important. Canberra’s wedge is almost three times larger than Greenland. The overlapping slice counterclaimed by Buenos Aires, London and Santiago? It also eclipses Greenland by about three times.

It may be within the interest of these influential states, then, to keep critics outside the room. As the second country after the UK to ratify the treaty on 21 June 1960, Pretoria may be one such possible insider critic, as it takes a dim view of neocolonial ambitions in the southern regions. So, can it adopt a more assertive position in Milan — one that mirrors its tough stance on Israel’s incursions into Gaza? 

Or does it remain compromised as long as it refuses to condemn Moscow’s illegal actions in Ukraine, a fellow consultative party? 

President Cyril Ramaphosa received President Volodymyr Zelensky in April and Cape Town has served as the refuge for Ukraine’s polar vessel, the Noosfera, since February 2022. 

For Johnson, South Africa’s “non-aligned” stance is a negotiating strength with the most obstructive actors at the negotiating table. 

“We want a much more active engagement with the Russian and Chinese delegations,” Johnson notes. “Perhaps we can edge them closer to a conservationist approach.”

He is adamant: “It’s not going to change our position …

“We have always been peace brokers as a country — so what I’d like to do this year is find out what are those things they are prepared to give up in order to gain something else? And then see if South Africa is comfortable with it.” DM