Eight former South African gold miners and their families on Friday started a legal action in the Johannesburg High Court against the Anglo American Corporation of South Africa (Anglo), London-based solicitors Leigh, Day and Company said in a statement.
The test cases are seeking compensation for gold miners affected by silicosis and phthisis, which is a combination of silicosis and tuberculosis, and to establish a fund to monitor and treat occupational respiratory disease in former gold miners.
The fund will be a boost to the existing, under-resourced state health systems, the solicitors said.
“I can confirm that Anglo received the documentation [of the lawsuit] on Friday. We don’t believe that Anglo American is liable and we will defend the proceedings against us,” Anglo spokesperson Anne Dunn said.
Silicosis results when a mineworker inhales crystalline silica dust, which may start a chain reaction that leads to a life-threatening inflammation of the lungs.
Those industries that pose the greatest potential risk for worker exposure to silica are construction, mining, manufacturing and agriculture.
Sandblasters, foundry workers and quarry workers are among those most often affected.
There is no treatment for silicosis. Those who suffer from the condition experience a lifetime of severe breathing problems and, in many cases, develop tuberculosis.
The case is being run by South Africa’s Legal Resources Centre, assisted by Leigh, Day and Company, which previously represented South African victims of Cape plc and Thor Chemicals and Slater and Gordon, based in Australia.
“Gold mining in South Africa has been responsible for literally hundreds of thousands of cases of silicosis over the last 100 years even though the adverse heath effects associated with asbestos and silica were appreciated more than 100 years ago,” Leigh, Day and Co alleged.
The fact that exposure to silica dust also increases the risk of tuberculosis was known in South Africa from at least 1913.
“Yet the industry appears to have had displayed a flagrant disregard and cavalier attitude to the health of their workers,” Leigh, Day and Company alleged.
“The evidence so far obtained shows that the dust standards at the mines were based on the assumption that 15% of the workforce employed for 20 years would develop silicosis and further that on-site showers and change-room facilities to remove toxic dust from workers’ clothes and bodies were not provided for black workers,” Leigh, Day and Company added.
“The similarities with what happened to the hundreds of thousands of workers injured by the asbestos industry are striking. We were able to obtain many millions of pounds for thousands of South African asbestos workers — I am hopeful we can be a part of ensuring that the gold-mining industry is similarly brought to book,” the legal firm’s Martyn Day said in a statement.
The Bond Victims’ Association (BVA) in Welkom sought the legal team’s assistance.
“Our community-based organisation has been assisting numerous gold miners in the Welkom area. Sick miners and their families have been left jobless and impoverished,” Dan Mofokeng of the BVA said.
The claims relate to employment at various mines, which were owned until 1998 by Anglo, a parent company that underwent a restructuring in 1999 that resulted in the shifting of its domicile to London.
Anglo listed on the London Stock Exchange on May 24 1999.
At the same time ownership of the shares in these mines was transferred to AngloGold, which was formed in 1998. Earlier this year, AngloGold merged with Ghana’s Ashanti Goldfields to create AngloGold Ashanti.
Evidence shows that the Anglo parent company had a direct link in the technical and medical aspects of all its gold mining operations, Leigh, Day and Co alleged.
“The present proceedings are thus brought against the Anglo parent company, much the same as earlier cases pursued in the United Kingdom against Cape PLC and Thor Chemicals,” the firm added.
The South African Legal Aid Board is providing significant funding for the cases, recognising their public importance.
The South Africa’s legal resources centre is the main provider of legal aid for those who can’t afford legal representation.
The centre is largely funded by donations from overseas. Many high-profile lawyers — including the current chief justice of South Africa — started their legal careers with the centre, Leigh, Day and Company said. — I-Net Bridge