GroundUp reports that lawyers for thousands of gold miners afflicted by silicosis or tuberculosis lined up beside five mining groups this week to ask the Gauteng High Court to approve a R5 billion settlement agreement.  

The agreement provides for the payment of benefits worth R5 billion to mineworkers and the dependents of dead mineworkers who contracted silicosis or pulmonary tuberculosis during or after their employment from 1965.  The benefits will be paid through the Tshiamiso Trust, which was set up specifically for this purpose.  The settlement agreement is regarded as one of the most complex multi-party class action settlements ever concluded.  Though the five mining companies (Anglo American SA, AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields, Harmony and Sibanye-Stillwater) and the mineworkers have reached agreement on the benefits to be paid, the court will have to assess whether absent mineworkers are adequately protected by the agreement.  It is still unknown how many mineworkers or their dependents are entitled to claim, as many of them are scattered across the sub-continent.  The mining companies have secured guarantees for the R5 billion claim, though the eventual claim could be higher.  Of this, R845 million has been set aside for administering the Tshiamiso Trust, which will accept claims for a period of 12 years, plus one additional year to wrap things up.  Some mining companies elected not to participate in the settlement, including DRD Gold, Randgold, Evander Gold and African Rainbow Minerals.

Read the full original of Ciaran Ryan’s report on the settlement at GroundUp (https://www.groundup.org.za/article/five-mining-groups-ask-court-approve-r5-billion-silicosis-settlement-case/). See too, Historic deal for diseased ex-miners, at SowetanLive

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