The Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources welcomes the milestone judgment handed down today by the High Court in Pretoria against the Aurora Empowerment Systems directors. The judgment found that they were liable for damages of stripping the assets of the liquidated Pamodzi Gold’s mines in Gauteng and North West, leading to more than 5000 workers losing their jobs as well as retirement benefits.

Committee Chairperson, Mr Sahlulele Luzipo, said although he understands that the directors have a right to recourse in the form of a Constitutional Court appeal, he hopes the judgment brought to end a protracted court battle. He said the employers were morally required to enter into bona fide relationships with the workers, whereby they need to open negotiation channels in order to find amicable solutions for similar situations. 

“We do not think that this matter was supposed to be a subject of the courts in the first place. There are over 5000 former mine workers who were left destitute and our view has always been that this matter could have been handled by way of negotiations between the two parties to find an out-of-court settlement,” said Mr Luzipo.

He said the court ruling reminded him of the Committee meeting that took place on 5 November 2014 in which the Chief Master of the High Court, together with the attorney for the provisional liquidators, Mr John Walker, briefed the Committee on the progress regarding the Aurora matter.

In that meeting, the Committee appealed to the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) to ensure stringent checks and balances before issuing mining licences. The DMR is still to report back to the Committee on this matter, as well as to present a consolidated liquidators’ list that would have been shared with the Chief Master of the High Court.

Issued by Parliamentary Communication Services on behalf of the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee Minerals Resources, Mr Sahlulele Luzipo