Mbabane: There is light at the end of the tunnel for ex-miners who got injured or fell sick while working in the mines in the Republic of South Africa.
General Secretary of the Ex-miners Association of Eswatini, Vama Jele has told Independent News that the process of releasing the fund is on-going but was a bit slow due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said the association has recruited more members to work on the trust fund in addition to appointing a Technical Advisory Committee in June, which will advise trustees of the fund on how to go about accessing the fund. He said they were hoping that the ex-miners will be compensated in July but all depending on the stability of the COVID-19 pandemic which restricts some processes.
According to Reuters, South African gold producers agreed a E5 billion (US$400 million) class action settlement in 2018 with law firms representing thousands of miners who contracted fatal lung diseases including silicosis and tuberculosis.
The news source said this was the most far-reaching class action settlement ever reached in South Africa, following a protracted legal battle by miners to win compensation for illnesses they have contracted over decades because of negligence in health and safety.
Estimates for the number of potential claimants range from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands. Three smaller gold producers are not party to the settlement and the class action against them will continue.
The class action suit was launched eight years ago on behalf of miners suffering from silicosis, an incurable disease caused by inhaling silica dust from gold-bearing rocks. It causes shortness of breath, a persistent cough and chest pains, and also makes people highly susceptible to tuberculosis.
Almost all the claimants are black miners from South Africa and neighbouring countries such as Lesotho and Eswatini, whom critics say were not provided with adequate protection during and after apartheid rule ended in 1994.
The settlement is broken into three parts and a trust will have 14 years to track down the claimants and distribute the funds – no easy task as many are in remote rural areas and may do not have proper medical and other records.
Out of the E5 billion rand, E845 million will be used to cover the administration expenses of the trust over the 12 years and E370 million will be paid to the law firms.
The remainder is for compensation and the final total will depend on the number of claims that are processed. In addition to the anticipated settlement pay-out, there is also close to 4 billion rand in a compensation fund which companies have been contributing to for years.
50 miners register in preparation to return to work
Meanwhile, 50 emaSwati miners have registered with the Ex-miners Association of Eswatini to return to work in South Africa after the easing down of the lockdown regulations in the republic.
Jele said they are busy processing the applications and are engaging their counterparts in South Africa with the hope of getting the miners to return to work.
He said there are over 100 miners that are currently in the country and he called upon them to start registering with the association so they can return to work. Jele said the miners should bring with them their passport numbers, employment numbers as well as indicate the name of the city and the mine where they are employed.
Jele advised that their jobs are still safe and they shouldn’t worry about losing their posts.
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