A lawyer for hundreds of former South African gold miners has accused their ex-employers of failing to provide access to regular check-ups for silicosis, an incurable lung disease caused by inhaling dust.
Richard Meeran of London law firm Leigh Day said thousands of miners in South Africa’s impoverished Eastern Cape province had missed out on compensation because they had been denied access to free, two-yearly tests, in contravention of South African laws protecting the rights of ex-miners.
He is already representing 700 silicosis-afflicted miners, most of them from the Eastern Cape, in a suit in London seeking “billions of rand” in compensation from London-based mining giant Anglo American.
Anglo American South Africa, the wholly owned entity being sued by the miners, was one of the world’s largest gold miners through much of the 20th century.
See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=11318.