Botswana’s former miners who toiled underground at South African mines – mainly gold – for decades where they contracted silicosis and tuberculosis are to receive reparations.
A class lawsuit that went before a South African High Court has seen a settlement reached between miners and mining companies in that country over occupational health hazards.
South African based Tshiamiso Trust, which represents current and former miners and their beneficiaries (some deceased), says a claims process for prospective recipients is at an advanced stage.
The claimants are those who contracted silicosis – a debilitating lung disease cause by constant exposure to mine dust- or work-related tuberculosis at 82 gold mines in the decades since March 1965 are at an advanced stage.
A Trust Deed was agreed between six mining companies and the attorneys representing mineworkers to claim damages against the companies.
The companies that were party to the settlement agreement are African Rainbow Minerals, Anglo American SA, AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields, Harmony and Sibanye-Stillwater.
The Trust said as of 20 January 2021, prospective claimants were able to begin booking appointments at 50 lodgement offices in mining centres and areas from which labour has historically been drawn in South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique, Eswatini and Botswana.
And from 15 February, those offices were opened to accepting the lodgement of documents from these claimants.
“Most of the lodgement offices are located at TEBA offices with which the Trust has negotiated a partnership agreement. Other lodgement centres will be opened in due course. It is the intention of the Trust to involve additional service providers in this process,” said the Trust.
To further facilitate the payment of benefits to eligible claimants, the Trust has negotiated a contract with Aurum Innova, SA mining’s leading occupational health agency. Aurum Innova is supplying mobile medical clinics and some permanent ones to carry out benefit medical examinations (BMEs) on claimants where this is necessary to prove claims. Tshiamiso has also negotiated a contract with Netcare for use of its facilities around the country.
“There will be further BME networks developed including, we hope, with state health facilities and with general practitioners at local sites,” the Trust announced.
Chairperson of the Board of Trustees, Tshiamiso Trust, Prof May Hermanus was quoted as saying: “It has been a challenging exercise for the trustees later reinforced by the management team to set up the huge infrastructure, based strictly on the court approved trust deed agreed by the parties, that is needed to implement the 12-year, R5 billion settlement that will ultimately pay out benefits to tens of thousands of people.”
She also acknowledged the delays claimants have experienced saying “The wait since May 2018, and since the establishment of the Trust in February 2020, has been a source of frustration for our prospective claimants, many of whom are old, and ill. Where they have passed away, the wait has been the ordeal of their dependants. The trustees and the management of Tshiamiso are painfully aware of this.”
For his part, Tshiamiso CEO Daniel Kotton repeated warnings of scams where unauthorised individuals have asked for payments from claimants to assist in the processing of their claims: “These are very serious scams because these individuals have no capacity – or intention – to assist. I want to emphasise that Tshiamiso will never ask claimants to pay any fee for clerical assistance in lodging their claims,” he said.
