Sheep magazine Archive 2: issues 10-17

the apartheid government, the industry set up a distinct and difficult to use
compensation scheme. One study by Deloitte found that less than 1.5% of
claims had been paid out to eligible miners.
The consequences of this arrangement were predictable. A 2009 report
revealed that almost all miners interviewed in the former republic of
Transkei, the largest provider of mining labour, had symptoms of respiratory
illness. None were formally employed. About 92% said they went without
food or experienced hunger on a monthly basis.
South Africa’s post-apartheid constitution has allowed human rights lawyers
and mineworkers to begin to hold mines accountable.
In 2011, South Africa’s constitutional court issued a landmark ruling
allowing Thembekile Mankayi, who had contracted silicosis working
underground, to sue AngloGold Ashanti for full loss of wages, damages
and medical expenses, regardless of what was already available to him
under the miner-specific compensation scheme.
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Human rights lawyers subsequently petitioned the courts to allow a class
action lawsuit; potentially, hundreds of thousands of miners would join
together to sue for as much as 20-40bn rand (roughly £1.2bn-£2.3bn).
Two South African non-governmental organizations (NGOs) – the
Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), an Aids activist group, and Sonke
Gender Justice, a gender equality organisation – applied to join the case
as amici curiae (impartial advisers to the court), introducing evidence on
the social costs of silicosis.
NOVEMBER 2016