Jean-Jacques Cornish

Class action launched against South African mining group following fatalities

A US law firm has filed a class action lawsuit against South African miner Sibanye-Stillwater.

It is acting on behalf of  shareholders seeking to recover losses suffered by a sharp fall in the gold producer’s share price.

Shares in Sibanye Stillwater plunged after a spate of deaths at its mines.

There have been 21 fatalities at the company’s mines this year – that is almost half the number of miners killed in  South Africa.

The death toll in country’s mining industry  in 2017 was  88.

Bernstein Liebhard said in a statement their suit would deal with what they call misleading statements made by the precious metals producer.

Accidents that have cast a shadow over the company’s operations include  950 miners  trapped underground for 33 hours because of a power outage at the Beatrix mine in the Free State in January

The National Union of Mineworkers  says company should have had contingency plans to deal with power cuts and urged workers to refuse to work in dangerous conditions.

A few days later, two mineworkers died in a rockfall at Sibanye’s Kloof mine on the West Rand.

Less than a week later another miner died at the company’s Driefontein mine west of Johannesburg

Another  worker died at the Khuseleka mine in Rustenburg.

Last month Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe describes as a disaster the death seven workers in a seismic event in Driefontiein.

Enquire about availability for radio, podcasts, reporting or opinion pieces.

Jean-Jacques Cornish is a journalist and broadcaster who has been involved in the media all his adult life.

Starting as a reporter on his hometown newspaper, he moved briefly to then Rhodesia before returning to South Africa to become a parliamentary correspondent with the South African Press Association. He was sent to London as Sapa’s London editor and also served as special correspondent to the United Nations. He joined the then Argus group in London as political correspondent.

Returning to South Africa after 12 years abroad, he was assistant editor on the Pretoria News for a decade before becoming editor of the Star and SA Times for five years.

Since 1999 he’s been an independent journalist writing and broadcasting – mainly about Africa – for Talk Radio 702 and 567 Cape
Talk, Radio France International, PressTV, Radio Live New Zealand, Business Day, Mail & Guardian, the BBC, Agence France Press,
Business in Africa, Leadership, India Today, the South African Institute for International Affairs and the Institute for Security Studies.

He has hosted current affairs talk shows on Talk Radio 702 and 567 Cape Talk. He appears as an African affairs pundit on SABC Africa and CNBC Africa.
He lectured in contemporary studies to journalism students at the Tshwane University of Technology and the University of Pretoria.

He speaks on African affairs to corporate and other audiences.
He has been officially invited as a journalist to more than 30 countries. He was the winner of the 2007 SADC award for radio journalism.

He’s been a member of the EISA team observing elections in Somaliland, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Egypt and Tunsiai.

In October 2009 he headed a group of 39 African journalists to the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Peoples’ Republic of China.

In January 2010 he joined a rescue and paramedical team to earthquake struck Haiti.

He is immediate past president of the Alliance Francaise of Pretoria.

Jean-Jacques is a director of Giant Media. The company was given access to Nelson Mandela in his retirement years until 2009.
He is co-producer of the hour-long documentary Mandela at 90 that was broadcast on BBC in January 2009.