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Test case against AngloGold approaches
Allan Seccombe
Posted: Mon, 15 Jan 2007

[miningmx.com] -- A test court case against AngloGold Ashanti that could open the floodgates to millions of dollars in claims against mining firms operating in South Africa comes before a High Court on 10 April.

The outcome of the case will be crucial to the local mining industry, which could find itself open to legal action if the proceedings go against AngloGold.

Thousands of former employees, especially those who worked underground, have contracted a lung disease called silicosis. Up to now South African legislation prevents workers made sick or injured in the course of their jobs from suing the company.
the point we want to argue
ANGLOGOLD Ashanti is contesting a summons in a R2.6m lawsuit brought against it by human rights lawyers on behalf on a sickly former employee.

The proposed date for the matter to appear in the Johannesburg High Court is 10 April, but the date has yet to be finalised between two sets of counsels representing both sides. The date should be agreed early this week.

The case was brought by Richard Spoor, who made a name successfully representing communities against mining companies, together with Cape Town-based Charles Abrahams and an international alliance of class action law firms centred in Washington.

The lawyers representing Thembekile Mankayi say he has been left destitute with a wife and 10 children after he was unable to work anymore because of ill health. His lungs were damaged by inhaling silica dust from underground drilling, causing silicosis.

He was paid R16,300 in compensation after 16 years at AngloGold Ashanti’s Vaal Reef operations.

AngloGold has filed a notice of intention of defend and a notice of exception, in which it argues that it cannot to sued for a worker’s ill health under South African law.

“This is the exception point we want to argue,” Abrahams told Miningmx.

AngloGold could not immediately offer comment.

Under South African law, the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases (COID) Act, workers or their families may not sue an employer for injury or death incurred at the work place. The compensation commission assumes responsibility for claims payouts.

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However, mineworkers are covered under the Mineworkers Occupational Diseases in Mineworkers Act, which limits their payouts in event of falling ill from working conditions to just a fraction of that awarded under the COID Act.

The legal arguments will revolve around which act applies in this case – either the general compensation Act or the mineworkers diseases Act.

The lawyers representing Mankayi plan to argue that mineworkers are not covered by the general Act. They will further argue that it could not have been the intention of the drafters of the legislation related to mineworkers to prevent them from suing their employers if their payouts were just a fraction of that provided for under the general Act.

The lawsuit is seen as a test case, which if successful, could open the floodgates to thousands of other mineworkers coming forward to claim compensation for damaged lungs from mining companies.

“This worker has silicosis and tuberculosis. He’s 48 and his working life is over. He’s unemployed and unemployable,” Spoor told Miningmx in October. “AngloGold had a legal responsibility to provide a safe and healthy work place. They failed in that.”