/ 26 January 2000

CAPE GETS DEADLINE ON ASBESTOS

BRITISH courts have Cape Plc until February 1 to challenge a last-ditch attempt by South African asbestos claimants to have their suit heard in Britain, a court official said on Monday. Three appeal court judges declared last November that the case belonged in South Africa but the 1500 claimants have asked the House of Lords, Britain’s supreme court, to overturn the ruling. They blame the firm for asbestos related diseases caught at Cape’s asbestos mining operations in the Northern Cape and Northern Province.