CAPE TOWN: South Africa plans a R1.5bn compensation fund for miners suffering from lung diseases affecting 500,000 people, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said.
Companies, including AngloGold Ashanti, the world’s third-biggest miner of the metal, are participating in the project that’s being rolled out by the Department of Health. Compensation will apply to sufferers of tuberculosis, silicosis, and other illnesses, Mr Motsoaledi said. Workers from other countries are also eligible to apply, he said.
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“Our goal is to compensate current and ex-mineworkers who have submitted valid and compensable claims,” he told reporters in Carletonville, a gold-mining town 86 km west of Johannesburg. “I’m here to pay back the money.”
Lawyers representing sufferers of silicosis, a lung disease caused by inhaling dust from gold mining, say companies, including AngloGold and Harmony Gold, are to blame for workers catching the disease because they operated without adequate ventilation for the past 60 years. South Africa is source of about a third of all gold produced globally.
