Nearly two years after a R5bn landmark ruling that would change the lives of former mineworkers who contracted deadly lung diseases at work, only seven claimants have been paid out – and that was just a trial run.
The Tshiamiso Trust last month made payments to seven people but CEO Daniel Kotton said they were faced with a mammoth task which could take up to 10 years to finalise.
The trust has to find and process claims of all former mineworkers who contracted silicosis or tuberculosis on 82 gold mines from 1965 to 2019.
Affected miners are eligible to receive between R10,000 and R500,000, depending on the nature and severity of the disease.
For the former miners, the money could pay for much-needed medical treatment.
John Mbhele, 59, of Mthwalume, KwaZulu-Natal, who worked at a gold mine from 1981 to 1989, said he had to use a pump to help him with breathing every morning. When his chest is blocked, he takes eight pills at a time to relieve his condition.
Mbhele has five children, and none of them works.
When he applied to the trust, he was told he did not qualify because he did not appear on any of their systems. He said he was looking forward to turning 60 on August 17 because then he would qualify for a pension grant, which he would use to feed his family.
“Sometimes I struggle to breathe in the middle of the night and I cannot sleep. When this thing is at its worst, I sometimes wish that God should just take my life – but I can see that probably my time has not come,” Mbhele said.
Another former miner, Moses Mohapi, 61, of Aliwal North in the Eastern Cape, worked for AngloGold for 35 years.
Mohapi developed silicosis during the first 15 years of work. He said he submitted his application in Johannesburg but, like Mbhele, he was informed that his details could not be found on the system.
In 2012, Richard Spoor Attorneys, Abrahams Kiewitz Incorporated and the Legal Resource Centre brought a class-action suit against several gold mining companies for them to compensate mineworkers exposed to silica dust that made them ill with either silicosis or tuberculosis.
Silicosis is a disease that affects people in jobs where they breathe in dust that contains silica – a tiny crystal found in sand, rock or mineral ores such as quartz.
The disease causes scarring in the lungs, a painful cough and shortness of breath.
On July 26 2019 the High Court in Johannesburg approved a R5bn claim. But this amount could increase depending on the number of claims received.
Kotton said there were 50 lodgment sites in SA, Mozambique, Lesotho, Swaziland and Botswana which are fully functional. A call centre has been established where workers can call a toll free number to make an appointment to visit the offices.
“Our job is to find as many eligible claimants as we can and pay them as quickly as possible. People are sick. People are dying – we do not have time to waste. We have already lost time due to the pandemic,” Kotton said.
He said the trust was faced with the huge challenge of getting the data of all the workers, including those employed during a period when computers did not exist.
“We don’t turn people away. We have put up a back office so that when people say, I have worked at this place, we take it to a back office where we try as best as we can to help them find any kind of proof that they worked at the mines. Even if it is a mining card or old documents. But there will be people that will just not be eligible,” Kotton said.
As of Friday, 10,000 people had lodged claims. The claim process can take up to six months, but Kotton wants it reduced.
He said another problem faced by the trust was fraudsters taking money from claimants with the promise that they would help them with the process in Lesotho, Eastern Cape and Free State.
He said the trust expected to start making payments by mid-year. Tshiamiso wants to pay at least 40% to 50% of the claimants in the next three years.
Richard Spoor, who worked with the mineworkers during their court application, said it was unacceptable for the trust to say they cannot find the records of a mineworker.
“An answer that says we can’t find your record is simply unacceptable. The job of the trust is to find those records. It needs to be dealt in a different way. You need to ask the worker what records does he have. If they do not have a record then they must do an affidavit. If you are not happy with his affidavit, find a co-worker to do an affidavit,” Spoor said.
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