Court considers miners’ plea for class-action lawsuit

A SOUTH African court yesterday began two weeks of hearings to determine if gold mineworkers suffering from debilitating lung diseases they say they had contracted at work could proceed with a class-action lawsuit against the industry.

The stakes are high with mineworkers seeking damages that could amount to billions of rand at a time when the gold industry is in a state of steep decline in the face of depressed prices and soaring costs.

The industry is opposed to the lawsuit proceeding as a class action, which would enable plaintiffs to join forces as a “class” as opposed to thousands of individual cases.

Plaintiffs, many from neighbouring countries such as Lesotho, are suing for compensation on the grounds that they contracted silicosis and tuberculosis through neglect.

Working deep underground for years without proper protection, mineworkers inhaled silica dust from goldbearing rocks and later contracted silicosis.

A disease which causes shortness of breath, a persistent cough and chest pains, it makes people highly susceptible to tuberculosis, which kills.

“If the court certifies the class, the lawsuit will proceed as the largest ever class-action lawsuit in the country and on the continent,” the Legal Resources Centre, a human rights group which has joined the case, said yesterday.

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

Attorney Richard Spoor, whose legal battle against an asbestos-mining company led to a $100 million (R1.3 billion) settlement in 2003, said he had signed up more than 30 000 former mineworkers and their dependents for the lawsuit.

Another law firm, Abrahams Kiewitz, has also joined the suit, which targets AngloGold Ashanti, Harmony Gold, Sibanye Gold, Gold Fields, Anglo American, DRDGold and African Rainbow Minerals.

Industry officials would not comment on the case and the ruling on whether the lawsuit could proceed as a class action may not be made until next year. – Reuters