Human rights groups ask to give evidence in South African miners’ lawsuit

Two leading human rights groups are approaching South Africa’s high court this week to seek leave to introduce evidence to a lawsuit that has the potential to cripple many gold mining houses in the country.

In October the South Gauteng High Court will rule on whether a class action lawsuit involving tens of thousands miners or their families, who allege that over decades they contracted lung diseases while working in gold mines, can go ahead.

The Sonke Gender Justice and Treatment Action Campaign (Tac) groups want to be allowed to intervene in the hearing as a "friend of the court", as both organisations say they have crucial evidence, and want to inform the court's understanding of class actions.

The lawsuit is against all of South Africa’s 32 gold mining companies and the rights groups believe that should the court decline to allow the class action to go ahead, it would in effect leave thousands of people without access to justice.

The miners would be unable to access compensation, they say, because the men and women do not have the financial resources to access courts by any other means than a class action.

TB and silicosis

At a press conference in

Johannesburg

the rights groups outlined ongoing research they are carrying out across the country into silicosis and tuberculosis in mines, its effect on miners’ health, and the fallout for their families.

They claimed the gold mining industry has for decades failed to comply with its obligations to treat and prevent lung disease amongst mineworkers, and has thus caused many of them to develop tuberculosis (TB) and silicosis.

Both degenerative diseases are often fatal, and the latter is incurable. Tac says that the prevalence rate of silicosis among gold miners in South Africa is 22-36 per cent.

The group also maintained that in 2007 the department of health estimated the country’s gold mining industry had the world’s highest rate of new TB cases, with the disease’s prevalence among miners 33 per cent higher than that of the general population.

"For decades gold mines have treated their workers as inferior human beings and shown a shocking disregard for the health of these workers," said Anele Yawa, general secretary of the Tac.

“The exploitation of mostly poor black workers mirrors the apartheid and colonialist exploitation of workers that we have seen throughout the continent. That even in post- apartheid South Africa the rights of mine workers are routinely violated is a national disgrace.”

The rights groups maintained their perspective and arguments were vital to a full understanding of the case, and could shift the debate and focus in the case significantly.

“In short, we want to put the Constitution on the table in this case. When considering this matter the court must take into account the constitutionally guaranteed rights we all have to access healthcare, to bodily integrity and to dignity,” said Mr Yawa.

They also want to introduce evidence of the negative impact the gold mining industry’s neglect has had on communities and particularly on women in rural areas.