Shadrack Temaramotsoane is one of 22 former gold-miners suing Anglo American for alleged negligence which they say led to them contracting silicosis between 1960 and 1980. They claim the mining company is responsible for their cloudy, diseased lungs by issuing negligent safety advice. The miners’ lawyer, Jason Brickhill says Anglo American is being taken on by the miners not for their ownership of the mine, but rather for being in charge of providing safety advice for at least two decades. Asked if they were ever given safety masks, Mongezi Hempe says: “They only gave us safety masks when the big guys, the inspectors, came. Afterwards they took it away.”
See http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/10/20091018115713754588.html.