The South African Minerals and Energy Minister has reiterated the need for mining companies with poor safety records to face prosecution.

Earlier this year, the South African government promised that next year will see a tightening of safety standards and that, as part of this, stiffer sanctions and prosecutions must be used.

Now Buyelwa Sonjica has once again stressed that punitive legal action is the only way to curb the levels of workplace deaths in the South African mining sector.

She said: "At the end of the day, the culprit must be brought to book and, at this stage, we have not been able to bring the culprits to book."

Ms Sonjica said that the difficulty with charging wrongdoing companies had been a problem in the past.

This is because the Department of Justice often faces capacity limitations, meaning that initial investigations carried out the Chamber of Mines (CoM) were not followed through to completion, leaving the person responsible unidentified and unaccountable, she explained.

Source:

SA to tighten mine safety policy, but prosecution remains problem – Sonjica, 14/12/07
http://www.miningweekly.co.za/article.php?a_id=123162

Stretched judiciary hampers mine prosecutions - government, 14/12/07
http://africa.reuters.com/business/news/usnBAN637656.html

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