The Department of Water Affairs’s (DWA) environmental crime investigators, the Blue Scorpions, have laid criminal charges against Aurora Empowerment Systems for pollution of the Blesbokspruit.

The Blesbokspruit is a protected wetland situated next to Aurora’s Grootvlei mine in Springs. The DWA’s water quality director Marius Keet told Mining Weekly that the Blesbokspruit was found to be acidic and contained high levels of iron and suspended particles.

According to Keets, charges have been brought against the company’s management, but not its directors. The charges include failure to treat excess water before dumping it into the wetland, contravening its water licence agreement, and failure to adhere to a departmental directive.

However, Aurora director Thulani Ngubane told Mining Weekly that the company had not received any formal notification of the charges.

Aurora is black empowerment group whose directors include Khulubuse Zuma, Zondwa Mandela and Thulani Ngubane. The company took over the liquidated Pamodzi Gold group’s mines in Grootvlei on the East Rand and Orkney in the North West in October 2009.