Parties close to lawsuit settlement

Lawyers for miners and gold firms ask for court postponement

The class action brought by thousands of mineworkers who contracted lung diseases while working for gold mining firms has been postponed because the parties are close to a settlement, lawyers for the companies said yesterday.

A high court in 2016 set the stage for protracted proceedings on cases dating back decades in the largest class-action suit yet in South Africa.

Many of the nearly 500 000 miners who contracted silicosis and tuberculosis are from neighbouring countries that supplied labour to South African mines.

African Rainbow Minerals, Anglo American, AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields, Harmony Gold and Sibanye Stillwater are listed as respondents.

Attorneys representing appellants and respondents involved in the suit had requested the postponement, the companies’ lawyers said in a statement, adding that settlement negotiations were at an “advanced stage”.

The Working Group on Occupational Lung Disease, which represents the six gold mining firms involved, said last year a provision for a settlement of about R5-billion had been made.

The suit, which has little precedent in South African law, has its roots in a landmark ruling given by the Constitutional Court in 2011 that for the first time allowed miners suffering from lung diseases to sue their employers for damages.

The case was scheduled to be heard from March 19. –