The Mine Health and Safety Inspectorate is investigating and compiling a report on Sibanye-Stillwater as 20 out of the 45 mining deaths reported since the start of this year have occurred at the company’s mines.
This was announced by Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe on Sunday during a media conference in Pretoria on the new Mining Charter.
Mantashe said this would allow for “appropriate action” and not “knee jerk” reactions.
“We are very worried about the fact that out of 45 fatalities thus far‚ 20 are from one company.”
Mantashe said the number of fatalities in the gold mining industry were “far ahead” of other mining sectors.
“Mining is not about rocks‚ it is about people. Once you lose that‚ you think that mining is about rocks‚ it’s about minerals‚ it’s about prices‚ then you have lost the plot … If you ignore human beings‚ you’ll have no mining.”