Minister accused of placing fishing industry interests above the survival of penguins.

Listen to this article 6 min Listen to this article 6 min An urgent application aimed at preventing the extinction of the African penguin has been set down for hearing in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria over three days in late October.

This follows the intervention of the deputy judge president of the court, who was requested by the applicants to have the matter placed under case management because of the urgency of the issue and the slow response of the government through the State attorney.

Also in October, the current "endangered" conservation status of the African penguin is likely to be upgraded to "critically endangered" at a meeting of the IUCN (World Conservation Union). This follows a recommendation to the IUCN by BirdLife South Africa.

The population of the continent's only penguin species is in free-fall and already at around 97% below historic levels. Without an appropriate intervention this seabird could be extinct in the wild as soon as 2035.

In March, BirdLife SA and the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (Sanccob) launched legal action against the then national Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE), Barbara Creecy.

The other respondents were...