NPA taking sides in grave row - claim

The National Prosecution Authority (NPA) has been accused of taking sides in a case in which a Mpumalanga family is accusing Mafube Coal Mine of relocating relatives' graves without consent.

- Masoka Dube

Spokesperson Nurse Masombuka said they were part of the families from Nooitgedacht, Middelburg, who laid charges of the violation of graves and malicious damage to property after Mafube exhumed remains of their relatives and buried them in mass graves marked as unknown.

In a letter Masombuka sent to the NPA, she stated that a case was opened last December, while the prosecutor declined to prosecute on 5 November this year.

"The decision not to prosecute was made swiftly, without the prosecutor consulting with the investigating officer, with whom we had been closely following up," said Masombuka.