The company was given various directives by the Departments of Water and Sanitation and Environmental Affairs to conduct remedial work on the broken silt dam’s wall and rehabilitate the environment.  

Other directives that were given to the mine included the cessation of operations until directed otherwise. After a brief meeting with Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation, David Mahlobo, the mine stakeholder, Billy Bilankulu, informed OFM News that they are pleased with the progress of rehabilitating the environment following the disaster on 11 September 2022.

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“Thus far we’ve said as the government and the private sector, we want to continue forging relations to ensure that we deliver that which the government expects of us, and also to ensure that we adhere to all directives. We have also committed to the government that we will continue to give them all the reports that they require and they are considering our application that we have made to ensure that we can ultimately go back to operation and secure the jobs of our people, and to ensure that the economy of Jagersfontein is also sustained,” adds Bilankulu.

Meanwhile, on Friday 4 November 2022, Mahlobo opened a criminal case against the JDP mine after stating that the mine had ignored some of the directives given by the Department of Water and Sanitation. Mahlobo also said that his department is considering suspending the licence of the mine for some period. 

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He also said that the mine previously chose to bring their own experts who claimed in their report that the structure of the mine dam wall was still in a good condition, and within a couple of weeks, the structure collapsed. Mahlobo further said the department conducted an assessment following the incident which resulted in the loss of lives and left many people displaced.

OFM News