The Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources welcomes the positive developments at Sibanye Gold mine, following a successful rescue of all mine workers who were trapped underground due to power outage.

The Chairperson of the Committee, Mr Sahlulele Luzipo, said: “We would like to extend our appreciation to Eskom engineers who worked tirelessly to restore power. However, this good news will not absolve the mine management from being held accountable”.

The Committee still expects the Department of Mineral Resources to act swiftly and take drastic actions to such acts of carelessness, including exploring possibilities of laying criminal charges against the management for attempted murder.

Mr Luzipo said the Department of Mineral Resources also has a lot to explain on how its safety inspectors failed to detect that the mine did not have a backup system that is equivalent to the operation.