MINISTER INVESTIGATES AURORA

The Minister of Labour, Mr. Membathisi Mdladlana, has launched an investigation into the Aurora Mining Company as no unemployment payments had been received from the company. This follows after Mr. Pieter Groenewald, a Parliamentary Member and leader of the Freedom Front Plus in the Northwest Province , had asked a question about this in Parliament. In a reply to the question (see here), Mdladlana acknowledged that no money had been received and that an investigation is being undertaken in terms of adhering to the requirements of the Unemployment Insurance Act and the Unemployment Insurance Contribution Act. (Reply follows below)

"The acknowledgement by the Minister that no unemployment money had been paid by Aurora, constitutes a contravention of the insurance acts. Strict actions will have to be instituted against Aurora and I will be monitoring this. It is unacceptable that companies are allowed to run huge undertakings such as a mine in which thousands of workers are involved but are incapable of paying their employees. No exceptions can be made for black empowerment companies such as Aurora . Employees are dependent on their work so that they may take care of their families and if their unemployment insurance is not paid over to the state, it creates a crisis for breadwinners," Mr. Pieter Groenewald (MP), provincial leader of the Freedom Front Plus says.

"I have also put a question to the Minister of Mining, Ms. Susan Shabangu, and would like to know whether her department had ensured that the Aurora mining company was in a position to manage mining enterprises in the Orkney and Grootvlei areas when the license had been awarded to the company. If her department had failed to ensure this I would like to know why and if they did, which criteria were used and to which extent the company had qualified in terms of the requirements. I am still awaiting a response from the Minister," Groenewald said.

Statement issued by Mr. Pieter Groenewald, MP, FF Plus provincial leader North West Province, May 3 2010

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