South African Gold Miners Sue Over Deadly Lung Disease
/Thousands of gold miners have asked permission from South African courts to sue some 30 mining companies over negligence in health and safety that the miners allege has caused them to contract silicosis, a debilitating and potentially fatal lung disease.
Just before Christmas, Richard Spoor, a South African lawyer, filed papers with the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg requesting permission to conduct a class action lawsuit on behalf of 17,000 former miners. Hundreds more are signing up with Spoor every month.
Anglo American, AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields and Harmony Gold are four of the 30 major companies named in the legal papers that operated 78 different mines from 1965 to the present. Lead plaintiffs include Bongani Nkala, a 59-year-old former mine worker from Mthatha, among 30 other former mine workers.
“I could see, taste and smell dust while I worked underground, particularly after blasting took place during a shift and we were not evacuated from the mine . . . I cough heavily all the time and I have constant chest pains," Mokholofu Boxwell, one of the petitioners declared in an affidavit submitted by Spoor. "Apart from no longer being able to provide for my family, I am no longer able to partake in community activities. I feel depressed and alone," added the former gold mine worker who now lives in Butha-Buthe, Lesotho.
“We seek no more than the application of the ‘polluter pays’ principle to be applied to an industry that generates sick men as surely as it produces great wealth for its shareholders," Spoor said in a press release. "When mine owners skimp on the cost of providing proper ventilation, workers get sick. These men have become ill through no fault of their own, yet, when they do, they are simply dismissed, and they and their families are left to languish in poverty and disease."
Spoor has a track record in such lawsuits. He won a $154 million out-of-court settlement on behalf of thousands of asbestos miners who had contracted asbestosis with the legal and financial backing of Motley Rice, a major U.S. laws firm.
