EMS Foundation

EMS Foundation The EMS Foundation was founded with a mission to protect the rights of children and wild animals EMS PBO Reference Number: 930053286.

The Mission of The EMS Foundation is the advancement and protection of the rights and general welfare of wild animals, children, elderly persons and other vulnerable groups in South Africa and Africa, for the purpose of alleviating suffering, disrupting inequality in all of its forms, raising public awareness, empowering and providing dignity. https://linktr.ee/emsfoundation

The EMS Foundation (S

outh Africa) was established as a Trust in November 2014 (registration number: IT 222949/14). As our Foundation was established for public benefit purposes we have Not for Profit Organisation (NPO) status (registration number: 168-304NPO) and have Public Benefit Organisation (PBO) with section 18(a) status. The EMS foundation is also a Registered Charity in the United Kingdom (No.:1167498).

“We patronise the animals for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. A...
30/05/2026

“We patronise the animals for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves.

And therein we err, and greatly err.

For the animal shall not be measured by man.

In a world older and more complete than ours, they are more finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices that we will never hear.

They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other Nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time.”
- HENRY BESTON

Image: male Chacma baboon
29 May 2026
Clarence Drive (R44) RooiEls, Overstrand
EMS Foundation

CONSTITUTIONAL COURT HEARS LANDMARK CASE ON WILDLIFE WELL-BEINGStepping into South Africa’s apex court is always a profo...
29/05/2026

CONSTITUTIONAL COURT HEARS LANDMARK CASE ON WILDLIFE WELL-BEING

Stepping into South Africa’s apex court is always a profoundly moving experience. Built on the historic site of the Old Fort Prison Complex in Braamfontein, the Constitutional Court stands as a symbol of South Africa’s transition from oppression to constitutional democracy. It is a space shaped by some of the country’s most influential jurists, from Arthur Chaskalson and Pius Langa to Dikgang Moseneke and Edwin Cameron, whose jurisprudence has fundamentally transformed the understanding of dignity, equality, justice, and constitutional accountability in South Africa.

On 26 May 2026, the Constitutional Court heard what may become one of the most consequential environmental and ethical matters in modern South African jurisprudence. At the centre of the dispute lies a deceptively simple issue - the inclusion of the concept of “well-being” within the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act (NEMBA). Yet beneath that single word lies a far deeper constitutional question: whether South Africa’s biodiversity governance framework will continue evolving in line with constitutional jurisprudence recognising that animals, including wild animals, are sentient beings with intrinsic value whose well-being matters.

The matter before the Court - South African Hunters and Game Conservation Association v Speaker of the National Assembly and Others (CCT 270/24) - concerns an attempt by hunting industry interests to strike down the “well-being” provisions incorporated into NEMBA.

The South African Hunters and Game Conservation Association (SAHGCA) argued that Parliament failed to facilitate meaningful public participation before incorporating wildlife “well-being” provisions into the legislation. According to SAHGCA, the final wording of the definition changed after the public participation process and therefore violated sections 59(1)(a) and 72(1)(a) of the Constitution, which require Parliament to facilitate public involvement in legislative processes.

SAHGCA contends that the definition of well-being was changed after the public participation process and that this amounts to a failure to comply with the constitutional obligation to facilitate public involvement in legislative processes. It further argues that because the impugned provisions rely on the definition of well-being, the alleged defect invalidates the broader legislative amendments.

The EMS Foundation intervened in the proceedings as the fifteenth respondent, represented by Advocate Ian Learmonth and environmental law firm Cullinan and Associates, opposing the challenge and defending the inclusion of wildlife well-being within South African environmental law.

The EMS Foundation argued that the changes made during the legislative process were not materially different from the concepts already subjected to years of public consultation and therefore did not invalidate Parliament’s public participation obligations. The Foundation further argued that the application was not brought timeously and that striking down the well-being provisions would be entirely inconsistent with current constitutional jurisprudence regarding the protection of animals.

The EMS Foundation’s view is that it would be entirely inconsistent with existing constitutional jurisprudence and current policy relating to wild animals if the immediate striking out of the well-being provisions is granted, leaving South Africa’s framework biodiversity legislation devoid of any meaningful provision recognising the well-being of non-human animals.

The hearing was marked by sustained and probing engagement from the Constitutional Court bench. Throughout proceedings, the Judges repeatedly interrogated the central issue of materiality: whether the amendments complained of by SAHGCA were truly so significant that they invalidated Parliament’s public participation process and rendered the legislation unconstitutional.

READ our full statement:

https://emsfoundation.org.za/constitutional-court-hears-landmark-case-on-wildlife-well-being/

©️EMS Foundation 2026

23/05/2026

The EMS Foundation will appear before the Constitutional Court of South Africa on 26 May 2026 in a landmark matter that could significantly shape the future of wildlife protection, animal well-being, and environmental governance in South Africa.

The matter, South African Hunters and Game Conservation Association v Speaker of the National Assembly and Others (CCT 270/24), concerns an attempt by hunting and commercial wildlife industry interests to strike down the “well-being” provisions contained in the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act (NEMBA).

The EMS Foundation, together with the National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA), is opposing this challenge because it believes that removing these provisions would amount to a major regression in South African constitutional and environmental law, stripping wild animals of critical legal recognition and protection.

23/05/2026

FREE THE JOHANNESBURG ZOO ELEPHANTS

“In a society struggling with violence and systemic injustice, we must critically examine the messages we send about power, domination and the treatment of the vulnerable,” said Michele Pickover, Executive Director of the EMS Foundation.

“The continued confinement of elephants for human spectacle reinforces a culture in which the suffering and deprivation of others can be normalised and ignored.

Social justice cannot be separated from how society treats non-human animals and the natural world. A culture of compassion, empathy and respect for life is indivisible.”

23/05/2026

ELEPHANT CAPTIVITY HAS NO PLACE IN A DEMOCRATIC SOUTH AFRICA

Media Statement
22nd May 2026

The EMS Foundation has described the recent Gauteng High Court hearing concerning the continued captivity of Lammie, Mopane and Ramadiba at the Johannesburg Zoo as a defining moment for animal justice, constitutional values and the future moral direction of South Africa.

At the heart of the case lies a profound ethical and constitutional question: can a democratic society founded on dignity, compassion, equality and justice continue to justify the confinement of highly intelligent, emotionally complex and socially sophisticated beings for public display and entertainment?

Over three days, the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has heard extensive legal, scientific and welfare arguments concerning the lives and wellbeing of the three elephants currently confined at the Johannesburg Zoo. The application was brought by Animal Law Reform South Africa, the EMS Foundation and Chief Stephen Fritz, Senior Chief of the South Peninsula Khoi Council.

The EMS Foundation argues that elephant captivity is fundamentally incompatible with both modern scientific understanding and the values South Africa claims to uphold as a constitutional democracy.

Elephants are not objects, exhibits or entertainment assets. They are autonomous, sentient beings with deep family bonds, advanced cognition, emotional intelligence, grief responses, social learning systems and extensive spatial and ecological needs. Scientific evidence before the Court highlighted that no urban zoo environment can adequately meet these needs. Captivity deprives elephants of agency, natural social structures, movement, stimulation and meaningful choice.


READ THE FULL STATEMENT:

https://emsfoundation.org.za/elephant-captivity-has-no-place-in-a-democratic-south-africa/

The Climate Justice Charter Movement Supports the Release of Lammie, Ramadiba and Mopane from Johannesburg Zoo“The Clima...
22/05/2026

The Climate Justice Charter Movement Supports the Release of Lammie, Ramadiba and Mopane from Johannesburg Zoo

“The Climate Justice Charter Movement stands in full solidarity with the EMS Foundation and others in their court application to have Lammie, Ramadiba and Mopane released from the Johannesburg Zoo and moved to a place where they can heal, roam and live with dignity.

These three elephants should not remain in captivity. The struggle to release Lammie, Ramadiba and Mopane is about more than the future of three elephants. It is about the kind of society we are becoming in the middle of a worsening climate, ecological and poly-crisis. The climate crisis is already disrupting the conditions that make life possible. Droughts, heatwaves, fires, recent floods across the country, habitat loss and biodiversity collapse are placing enormous pressure on human and non-human life. In such a moment, we cannot continue to treat other beings as objects for display, entertainment or municipal ownership. Elephants are sentient, intelligent and social beings. They remember, grieve, bond, communicate and move across landscapes as part of complex ecological and social worlds. To confine such beings to a zoo enclosure is to deny the fullness of who they are.

The Climate Justice Charter, launched in 2020 after a six-year bottom-up grassroots process, calls on South Africa to end the capitalist war against nature. It affirms that humans are part of the wider web of life, not rulers standing above it. Our approach to the rights of nature as part of systemic alternatives for transformative change, demands that we widen our understanding of justice. It asks what justice means not only for people, but also for rivers, forests, animals, soils, oceans and all the life-supporting systems that make our own survival possible. We recognise that all living beings and ecosystems have intrinsic value and must be able to exist, persist and regenerate their vital cycles. From this perspective, Lammie, Ramadiba and Mopane are not exhibits. They are not property. They are not assets to be managed for public attraction. They are living beings with their own needs, relationships, histories and right to flourish. In this case, justice means release.”

https://emsfoundation.org.za/climate-justice-charter-movement-supports-the-release-of-lammie-ramadiba-and-mopane-from-the-johannesburg-zoo/

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