Richard Spoor
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» AngloGold in dock on health charge

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AngloGold court case delayed
Allan Seccombe
Posted: Mon, 11 Jun 2007

[miningmx.com] -- A R2.6m court case brought against AngloGold Ashanti, which is seen as a test for the South African gold mining industry and which was due to start this week, has been postponed until possibly October so that a dedicated senior and experienced judge may hear the matter.

The case brought by a team of powerful lawyers on behalf of Thembekile Mankayi who used to work at an AngloGold Ashanti mine in South Africa was to have been heard on 12 June, but legal teams from both sides have the case removed from the roll so that a "special judge" could hear the matter, said Charles Abrahams, a lawyer representing Mankayi.

"Both sides approached the deputy judge president to have this matter heard by a special judge," Abrahams said. "We're probably looking at some time in October."
some time in October
This will mean a full year would have passed since the summons was served on AngloGold Ashanti, in what Abrahams' fellow lawyer, noted human rights activist Richard Spoor, has called 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.

Mankayi contracted silicosis, a lung disease contracted by breathing in silica quartz dust. He is one of tens of thousands of workers to have the illness.

The South African mining industry has committed itself to bring 95% of exposure measurements to silica dust below levels set out in legislature.

Silicosis levels currently run at between one and four percent of the country's 150,000 employed mineworkers, said Chamber of Mines health advisor Faizel Randera. Companies reported 2,430 cases in 2006.

"We can't say with certainty we are seeing a downward trend yet," Randera said.

The silicosis incidence rate jumps to to 18% to 20% for an estimated 500,000 or more people who have left the industry, he said.

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.

AngloGold Ashanti has taken a legal exception to the summons. It is this exception that will be heard in a Johannesburg court. It is not meant to be a full-blown court case but rather an argument between the two parties whether there is any merit in the lawsuit brought against one of the world’s largest gold miners.

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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.

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 has 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.