Spoor behind biggest class-action success

● Spoor was instrumental in SA’s largest and most expensive class action to date, brought by mineworkers against seven gold mining companies, with the signing of a R5bn mediated settlement this year.

The miners were afflicted with silicosis after working underground and breathing in silicaladen dust.

Spoor told Business Day in May he had come under pressure from former gold-mine employees to reach a settlement quickly instead of dragging the matter through the courts for years.

“We might have done better if we continued litigating for longer, but weighing heavily on us was the desire to reach a conclusion and get money distributed to people,” he said.

Ailing former mineworkers are dying at a rate of about 4% a year based on the records of 30,000 afflicted miners. If the primary claimant dies, then his widow and dependants stand to benefit.

Picture: Lulamile Feni Richard Spoor and his colleague Charles Abrahams, right, at KuKhambi village when visiting the widow, Nozuzile, and children of miner Thembekile Mankayi, whose compensation claim for R2.6m became a landmark case.