ANA reports that parliament's mineral resources portfolio committee has expressed grave concern at the latest developments at the Gupta-owned Optimum coal mine in Mpumalanga, where the company failed to pay workers this month.  

Workers have reportedly gone on strike to demand their salaries and are also demanding answers about the future of the mine, which has reportedly been placed under business rescue.  The committee had received a letter from the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) requesting its intervention in the ongoing impasse, committee chairman Sahlulele Luzipo said on Saturday.  He remarked that the situation at Optimum was reminiscent of the events leading up to the Aurora mine disaster, when workers were not paid for several months before the mine was shut down and its assets stripped by the owners.  “It cannot be allowed under this government dispensation that workers are made to bear the brunt while the owners walk away unscathed,” Luzipo said.  He called on the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) to intervene swiftly and establish with certainty the future of the mine.  It should also assist in ensuring that workers were paid.

• Read this report in full at eNCA
• See too, Parliament calls on mineral resources department to intervene at Gupta mine, at News24

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