Various organisations said on Thursday nothing would reverse the loss of life and damage suffered by victims of asbestos-related diseases but they welcomed the settlement agreements with Cape plc and Gencor with a mixture of anger and relief.
The National Union of Mineworkers said it was happy the survivors’ long wait for compensation was over and they could now start rebuilding their lives.
”Indeed, no amount or settlement can repair the damage of lost and broken lives. But this will go a long way in bringing finality to this atrocious chapter in their lives,” it said in a statement.
The settlements should send a clear message to companies that they should do their business in a humane, just and environmentally friendly manner.
”Furthermore, it indicates that companies can no longer go on with business as usual in the hope of avoiding responsibility for their actions,” the union said.
After years of legal wrangling, British company Cape plc agreed to pay a total of UK7,5-million (about R97-million) to the 7 500 South African victims. The claimants would receive a further R42,5 million in terms of an agreement signed with Gencor on Wednesday. Gencor was a co-defendant in the London court proceedings.
The money will not bring her dead husband back, but at least it might help her family survive, Annamarie Renoster said on Thursday. Renoster’s carpenter husband James died in June 2001. Although he never worked on an asbestos mine, he contracted asbestosis through environmental exposure while growing up at Pomfret near Kuruman in the Northern Cape, where his father Johannes Renoster worked on a mine. Johannes died in 1980, also from asbestosis.
Another Kuruman woman, Victoria Kabari (23) said on Thursday the compensation would hopefully enable her to resume her studies. Kabari, the eldest of five children, had to give up her studies at the Kimberley College when her father, Herman, fell ill in 2001 and could no longer pay for her tuition. He died in January this year.
Ngoako Ramathlodi, the premier of Limpopo where several asbestos mines were once situated, said on Thursday: ”Once the money is divided amongst the claimants, it will amount to next to nothing. But we shall settle in acknowledgement that Cape has paid up and acknowledged its wrong doings.
”I would like to express my gratitude to all those in the UK who have stood alongside our struggle and hope that this solidarity and support will continue in the many similar cases involving underprivileged people across the world.”
Cecil Skeffers of community group Concerned People Against Asbestos (CPAA) said: ”While we can’t forget the effects Cape’s operations have had on thousands of people, we are delighted that Cape have finally made a settlement. We hope this will be an example to other multinational companies who practise in similar ways.”
Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA), which campaigns for peace, democracy and development in Southern Africa and is the successor to the Anti-Apartheid Movement has led the public campaign in Britain to hold British company Cape plc to account. In a statement on Thursday, ACTSA’s Head of Campaigns Aditi Sharma said she hoped ”that this time the settlement will be more than in name only”.
”Cape has fought a long and petty battle while hundreds of South African claimants have died. Since the last agreement of December 2001 alone, more than 200 claimants have died. Nothing can ever compensate for this loss.”
Aditi said a communities in Northern Cape and Limpopo Provinces were likely to greet this latest announcement with a mixture of anger and relief: ”Anger that so many have died before seeing justice and relief that families may finally see some compensation for the legacy of death and disease left by asbestos mining during
apartheid.”
She said ACTSA however welcomed the settlement because it gave some families a chance to invest in their children’s future.
”The Truth and Reconciliation commission identified the mining industry as central to apartheid’s continuation. Multinational companies like Cape should be ashamed that they still deny their responsibility to male reparations to devastated communities,” she said.
”While this settlement is welcome, children in the Northern Cape and Limpopo have no alternative but to continue to play in asbestos dust in years to come.” – Sapa