AURORA THIEVES MUST PAY UP

25 June 2015

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) welcomes the judgement by the North Gauteng High Court which ruled that directors of Aurora Empowerment Systems and their business associates must pay up.

As the NUM, we totally agree with Judge Bertelsmann who delivered this scathing judgement that Aurora directors, Khulubuse Zuma, Zondwa Mandela, Thulani Ngubane and their business associates Solly and Faizel Bhana, should be made to pay for all losses to the Pamodzi estate in their personal capacity.

The judgement today is the light at the end of the tunnel. We have always believed as the NUM that Aurora directors were not credible. They were thieves who came to steal the assets of the company. These were a group of thieves who stripped all the assets and destroyed the infrastructure.

We are happy about the judgement, but we are however worried that their lawyers have indicated that they are going to appeal the judgement and this is another delay. We have instructed our lawyers to meet the liquidators and chart the way forward to demand the payment for the workers as soon as possible.

The judgement today is a victory for these poor mineworkers. Thousands of these workers are trapped in abject poverty, they have no food, have no running water and some of those workers are sick and others have passed on due to stress created by these heartless thieves.

Statement issued by Joseph Montisetsi, NUM Deputy President, June 25 2015