700 claimants join Anglo silicosis suit

Carli Lourens

THE NUMBER of former mineworkers who were claiming damages from Anglo American South Africa for suffering deadly lung diseases after working in gold mines had increased to more than 700 from 450, Leigh Day, the British law firm representing the workers, said yesterday.

The case was filed in the UK as that was where Anglo American was based and because compensation levels there were higher, said Richard Meeran, the miners’ solicitor.

Meeran expected Anglo to respond by Friday, he said. “The 700 is just an ever-increasing number. If you talk to me in a month’s time, it might be 1 000.”

Most of the claimants, who are alleged to have contracted silicosis or silico-tuberculosis from exposure to dust, resided in the Eastern Cape and had never undergone a so-called benefit medical examination, the firm said before a briefing in Johannesburg.

“Fifteen years after the issue was raised, nothing has happened. It’s a scandal.”

Leigh Day filed lawsuits on September 20 at the High Court in London against Anglo American’s wholly owned unit on behalf of the miners.

The mining company faced claims for “hundreds of millions of pounds”, Meeran said last month.

Silicosis, from silica dust, causes scar tissue in the lungs, raising vulnerability to tuberculosis that may kill more than half its victims if infection is not properly treated.

“Anglo American does not believe that it is in any way liable for the silicosis claims brought by former gold workers and is defending the actions,” the company said.

The gold companies in which Anglo American SA had an ownership interest and which employed the mineworkers “were responsible for the health and safety of their employees and took reasonable steps to protect them”.

The Constitutional Court ruled on March 3 that former miners were able to seek compensation from their employers regardless of whether they qualified for state benefits for work-related diseases, exposing mining companies to claims.

Until the ruling, miners who had received compensation for contracting occupational diseases through the state could not lodge additional claims against companies.

The latest claims alleged that Anglo was negligent in failing to control dust and prevent workers from being exposed to excessive levels of it, or effectively monitor sickness levels, particularly among black workers, Meeran said in September.

The suit included “a claim for a representative class of unnamed underground black miners who are alleged to have contracted silicosis or silico-tuberculosis” in mines until 1998, Leigh Day said. – Bloomberg