Cape Town - Water affairs has taken legal action against
four mines that continued operating without water-use licences despite
being told to comply, Deputy Water Affairs Minister Rejoice Mabudafhasi
said on Wednesday.
She told a media briefing at parliament that a "random" audit of
86 mines had revealed six that were operating without a water licence.
Responding to a question on the matter, water affairs chief
operations officer Trevor Balzer named four the department had "taken
legal action" against.
"(They are) Leliefontein, where there's no water-use licence,
and we're taking criminal action; Mashala-Delta, also criminal action;
and, Imbabala coal mine, where a pre-directive was issued, and the DMR (department of mineral resources) have put a stop to mining activities.
"(The fourth is) Xstrata's Onverdacht (mine), where we've issued
a pre-directive (and) mining has been stopped," he said.
Mabudafhasi said the charges had to do with "when they've
polluted or continued to work without a licence, and yet they'd been
issued a directive telling them that by a certain time they must have
corrected (certain) issues".