AngloGold in court in June

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AngloGold in court in June
Allan Seccombe
Posted: Thu, 15 Mar 2007

[miningmx.com] -- ANGLOGOLD Ashanti will appear in a Johannesburg court on 12 June to contest an application brought by a team of powerful lawyers on behalf of a sick former worker that could open the South African gold mining industry to claims worth billions of rands.

AngloGold Ashanti was served a R2.6m summons in October last year by human rights lawyers on behalf of Thembekile Mankayi, who worked at the company�s underground mines and contracted silicosis, a lung disease contracted by breathing in silica quartz dust.

The lawyers argue Mankayi has been left destitute with a wife and 10 children after he was unable to work anymore because of ill health caused by silicosis.

then we�ll go ahead

AngloGold Ashanti has taken a legal exception to the summons.

It is this exception that will be heard in a Witwatersrand local division court in June. It is not a full-blown court case but rather an argument between the two parties whether there is any merit in the case brought against one of the world�s largest gold miners.

The team providing legal counsel for Mankayi�s lawyers comprises the highly regarded David Unterhalter senior counsel (SC), Steven Goldblatt and Alan Dodson.

AngloGold has an equally hard-hitting team led by Chris Loxton SC and D Antrobus SC. The two senior counsels represented the Chamber of Mines during the Leon Commission of enquiry into health and safety of the South African mining industry in 1994 and 1995.

�The matter has been set down for 12 June and it is to hear the exception AngloGold has taken to our pleadings,� said Charles Abrahams, a lawyer working with outspoken South African workers� rights lawyer Richard Spoor on behalf of Mankayi.

Spoor appeared before the Leon Commission on behalf of the Chemical Workers Union.

Spoor has said he sees the proceedings against AngloGold Ashanti as a test case that could open the floodgates for workers made sick working on South African mines to potentially claim billions of rands from mining companies.

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Under South African labour laws, companies are protected by the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (COIDA) from lawsuits by employees disabled at work and legal actions brought by families of employees killed at work.

A government-run fund provides compensation to disabled workers or families of those killed at work.

�A study of shaft sinkers, developers, stopers and shift bosses had shown that if a man were to work 8,000 shifts the probability of developing silicosis was over 30 per cent,� the Leon Commission said in its report to the-President Nelson Mandela.

Bear in mind, the Commission�s report is at least 12 years old and mining companies have taken extensive measures to reduce workers� exposure to dust and danger since then.

AngloGold Ashanti is using the COIDA provisions to defend itself. �The defendant is an employer as defined in COIDA,� the company�s legal counsel said in court papers.

However, Mankayi�s legal team will argue that under the Occupational Diseases in Mines and Works Act (ODIMWA) there is no provision specifically barring workers from suing their employers.

�We are going to say we are entitled to sue AngloGold and there is nothing in the ODIMWA that prevents us from doing so. AngloGold raises the exception that we can�t because of the provisions of COIDA,� Abrahams said.

�If the court decides our way then we�ll go ahead, but if the decision goes in favour of AngloGold then that�s the end of it,� he said.

The commission pointed out that the issue of lung diseases in miners is a hugely complicated issue, with quartz dust, tuberculosis and smoking all playing a role.

During the Commission�s enquiry it was clear that the mining companies were distancing themselves from sole responsibility for such diseases contracted by those working on the mines.

�Implicit throughout the evidence led on behalf of the industry is the assertion that society as a whole chose to exploit the mineral resources of the country, and that therefore society and the industry are jointly involved in dealing with the adverse effects because otherwise society would have remained largely agrarian,� the report said.

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