While the Department of Water Affairs has opened a case with the SA Police Service, it is receiving advice on whether criminal charges could be laid against the liquidators of Pamodzi Gold, who owned the Grootvlie and Orkney gold mines, or Aurora Empowerment Systems, which attempted to buy the mines, or both.
This emerged during Tuesday's Parliamentary hearings into the issue of acid mine water drainage on the Western, Central and Eastern Witwatersrand basins.
“We have laid a criminal charge with the SA Police Service. The case number is 385/05/201. But the latest information just received is that we are taking advice on whether we can lay the charges against the liquidators, or Aurora, or both,” a Department of Water Affairs official said.
The answer was in response to a question by Democratic Alliance MP Gareth Morgan who wanted to know what action was being taken as there was a clear transgression by the operators of the Grootvlei mine as they pumped acid water into a water course that supplied clean drinking water.
The hearings continue under the chairmanship of African National Congress MP Johnny de Lange. - I-Net Bridge