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Water Affairs acts against four mines

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".



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