RUSTENBURG - The North West High Court on Friday, reserved judgment in a case involving Lonmin's mining licence, the Mining Forum of South Africa (MFSA) said on Friday.
"It was a very complex case, both parties Lonmin and [department of mineral resources] DMR did not comply, what they were arguing about in terms of their technicalities was our departure, they were saying we did not follow [the] departure process. In this case the court did not even take it into consideration because of the main issue of non compliance," said president Blessings Ramoba.
"We are very hopeful it [judgment] will come on our favour. They agreed that Lonmin did not comply and therefore according to the law, if you did not comply it is very much clear that the minister must take away the licence and the company must go and fixed the issues of social and labour plans, when they are done they can go back to operations. In this case what we are asking the court is that the licence must be taken away."
He said the sale between Lonmin and Sibanye should be stopped until the labour social plans have been addressed.
In court papers, the forum said Lonmin failed to build houses for mineworkers as promised in its social labour plans, resulting in mushrooming informal settlements and land occupations. It also claims the company failed to build schools and that children have to travel long distances to school.