Business Report writes that the Bench Marks Foundation (BMF) has thrown down the gauntlet to Bokoni Platinum in Limpopo, which is retrenching 2651 employees, to give details of its plans to mothball shafts as it reiterated its call for mining houses to pay retrenched employees social grants.  

BMF, a faith-based NGO that monitors corporate performance, said on Friday that communities feared that the mine would use this “suspension” as a way of avoiding its requirement to rehabilitate the land.  It was responding to news that Bokoni had been placed in a two-year period of care and maintenance to regain its financial strength.  BMR’s John Capel said there were many unanswered questions around Bokoni and asked:  “Once a mine’s operation is suspended, what onus is on it to continue operations once the suspension period has passed?  How can we be sure that the same workers will be employed?  How will infrastructure such as boreholes be maintained in good working order?  What about the state of the roads that are used to take children to school, for example?”  Capel also said that mining companies should establish a system of social grants to support the mineworkers they were retrenching.

• Read this report by Dineo Faku in full at Business Report

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page