SA will tighten mine safety rules, Ramaphosa says after weekend tragedy
SA will tighten its mine safety regulations to hold mine operators accountable for accidental deaths in the industry, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Monday. Safety is a huge issue in SA’s deep and dangerous mines, and increasingly a focus for investors. A spate of deaths at Sibanye-Stillwater’s gold operations, including a seismic event that killed seven miners in early May, has highlighted the risks. Ramaphosa was responding during an interview for eNCA news channel to a question after six miners died on Sunday in an underground fire at a copper mine operated by unlisted Palabora Mining, the latest tragedy to hit South Africa’s mines.
"We are going to tighten up the regulations to ensure that those who run these mines must be accountable themselves because we cannot have so many deaths," said Ramaphosa, who was a mine union activist during apartheid. Ramaphosa noted that 54 miners had been killed in South African mines so far in 2018. This follows a spike in mine deaths in...
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