BL Premium reports that more than two years after six gold mining companies agreed to compensate workers afflicted by silicosis and tuberculosis (TB), only about a quarter of a percent of almost 40,000 claims have been paid.
The Tshiamiso Trust is tasked with disbursing R5bn that mining companies agreed to pay sick employees for workplace lung diseases contracted between 1965 and 2019. It has paid a little more than 100 claims to date. In 2018, six mining companies and miners’ representatives agreed to the R5bn compensation fund in an out-of-court settlement. The trust itself was established in 2020 to compensate affected mineworkers suffering from silicosis and TB. The agreement applies to those who worked at 82 gold mines owned by African Rainbow Minerals, Anglo American SA, AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields, Harmony and Sibanye-Stillwater. Where the affected miner is dead, relatives are entitled to compensation. Trust spokesperson Monako Dibetle said on Monday the 102 claimants were paid between R25,000 and R250,000 in damages between late June and the end of July. These payments amounted to about R9m, which is a fraction of the trust’s R5bn budget. Dibetle said there was a delay because the trust had to establish offices across Southern Africa for claimants in neighbouring states. The Covid-19 pandemic and the trust deed’s complexities also contributed to the delays. The claimants’ agent Richard Spoor said the announcement of 102 payments by mid-2021 signalled “this giant pipeline that has been established is beginning to flow… It was really, really challenging setting the thing up.”
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Erin Bates at BusinessLive (paywall access only)
- Read too, Tshiamiso Trust has paid out R9m so far, at Mining Weekly
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