Cape Town - London lawyers acting for South African victims of asbestos-related illnesses called on Anglo American yesterday to contribute to the trust set up from the P21 million in compensation that British multinational Cape plc has agreed to pay over 10 years.
The settlement was reached before the multimillion-rand damages action against Cape could be heard in the London high court because of fears it could go into liquidation if the court ruled against it.
Richard Meeran of Leigh Day & Company, who was one of the lawyers who represented South African victims, said Charter plc, Cape's parent company, held a 62 percent interest in Cape from 1969 onwards. Anglo in turn had a significant shareholding in Charter during this period and Anglo directors simultaneously held directorships in Charter and Cape.
"Accordingly, Anglo profited substantially from the asbestos mining and milling activities in apartheid South Africa," he said.
Richard Spoor, an occupation injury lawyer from Nelspruit who also represents victims of asbestosis, said yesterday the history of the mining industry was an "extremely dark and ugly one".
When British coal miners won P2 billion in damages for occupational lung disease from British Coal in 1999, Prime Minister Tony Blair said he was pleased because it was a debt society owed and had to pay.
"The same situation prevails here. There is a huge debt society and the mining industry owes mineworkers. Justice demands that we pay that debt."
Spoor said over and above asbestos claims, half a million miners were ill from silicotic - a disease caused by inhaling silica (Quartz) dust mainly found in gold and diamond mines.
For many years asbestos was the biggest export earner for South Africa and the second-biggest non-metallic mining product after coal. Dividends of 50 percent and more were common.
"They literally have the deaths of thousands on their hands and their conscience, I hope."