NUM lambastes Sibanye’s legal bid against DMR over Section 54 stoppages

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on Monday criticised Sibanye Platinum’s decision to pursue a legal bid against the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) for alleged financial damages as a result of Section 54 stoppages.

Miningmx earlier this months reported that Sibanye had brought the claim against the DMR following the application of a number of Section 54 closures at its Kroondal platinum mines, near Rustenburg, last year.

“Section 54 of the Mine Health and Safety Act was brought to life because it has contributed to saving lives in the mining industry. Prior to the implementation of Section 54, people were dying in their hundreds in the mining industry, but it has since seen a rapid decline of fatalities in the mining industry,” the union said in a statement.

It pointed out that, since 2008, there had been a “consistent decline” in the lives lost in the mining industry. In 2015, 77 lives were lost and, in 2016, 76 lives were lost.

"We are urging the Chamber of Mines to intervene as a matter of urgency and to then engage with the DMR to discuss the elephant in the room rather than dispose of the baby with dirty bath water," said NUM health and safety chairperson Peter Bailey.

Meanwhile, the Chamber of Mines (CoM) late on Friday said it was perplexed by a statement issued by Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane two days earlier, stating that the Minister had alleged that certain of the CoM’s members were flouting safety laws and regulations.

The CoM said it and its members view safety as their most significant priority, but noted that it and its members are concerned about what it considers the inappropriate application of regulations where Section 54s, for example, are applied in such a way that is not proportionate to the context of the alleged infraction.