Oxpeckers publishes never-before-seen data exposing the lack of mine closures, despite R45-billion being held in financial provisions for rehabilitation in 2015. Investigation by Mark Olalde
“According to Department of Environmental Affairs statistics obtained by Oxpeckers, 40% of operational mines held inadequate financial provisions in 2012/13. This insufficient provisioning was in part due to the fact that the guidelines for calculating financial provisions have not been updated in more than 12 years. Exacerbating the problem, legislation does not allow funds to be used for concurrent rehabilitation.
“The information from the environment department also sheds light on the confusion and lack of oversight involved with the granting of closure certificates. The department was told 575 applications for closure certificates were under consideration and 159 were issued in 2013/14 – however, according to answers the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) provided in Parliament in response to questions from the Democratic Alliance, only 102 were issued that year.”
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