Thousands of former gold miners suffering from lung diseases such as silicosis and tuberculosis are still waiting for compensation years after applying to the Tshiamiso Trust.
The trust was set up after a class action settlement for miners who worked in South African gold mines and were exposed to silica dust.
The lawsuit incorporates former mineworkers from South Africa and the SADC region. The settlement covers those who worked between 1965 and 2019, but some families have lost hope.
Catherine Meyburgh from Justice for Miners said the situation was getting worse, highlighting that many of the former miners have died while still applying or are ready to receive compensation.
She said one of the main challenges was the lack of proper medical records. For decades, she said, mining companies and the government failed to keep proper records, especially of black mineworkers, making it difficult for claimants to prove their illness.
Meyburgh told Sunday World that the trust relied on the Medical Bureau for Occupational Diseases for the silicosis certification and this disadvantaged a number of black miners.
“Black miners were often tested in mine hospitals that didn’t keep proper files, and many of those hospitals have since closed. Their records are lost.”
She explained that this unfair system meant that insisting on certain medical records would favour white miners and leave many black miners without the compensation they deserved.
Noxolo Ndubela, a 55-year-old widow from Tsomo in Eastern Cape, expressed frustration after years of struggling to secure compensation.
Ndubela told Sunday World that her husband passed on in 2013. His death certificate stated that he died of natural causes.
“I was told by the trust that I need to apply for an unabridged certificate from home affairs, but it still has not been issued.”
She revealed the ripple effects on her family, noting that one of her children cannot obtain his degree certification from the University of Johannesburg due to outstanding fees. “This is frustrating because my children are suffering.
He has a job interview coming up, and he was asking me if it is worth going
to because he does not have proof of his qualifications,” said Ndubela.
She also added that while they were assured that her husband had silicosis, she was instructed to retrieve his medical records from the hospital where he was diagnosed. She said she was now concerned about the retrieval, wondering if they would ever gain access to the records.
Retselisitsoe Mphola from Lesotho told the story of his late father, who died while waiting for compensation.
His father, Moletsane Mphola, worked at various mines but last served at the Harmony Gold mine in Free State. He said that when his father stopped working at the mine in 1995, he said he was struggling to breathe until the family learned that he suffered from silicosis.
“He lodged a claim [but] passed on while awaiting compensation. Now, whenever we enquire about it, we are told that they have taken the medical results to their doctors for verification.
“However, he was also taken to a doctor where his breathing was tested and he completed all these things,” said Mphola.
He told Sunday World that when he checked the status, he was informed that the claim was on the fifth stage. He emphasised that the trust was not transparent, considering his father died two years after lodging the claim.
The trust said this week: “Mineworkers must have carried out risk work at one of the qualifying gold mines (owned by African Rainbow Minerals, Anglo American South Africa, AngloGold Ashanti, Harmony Gold, Sibanye Stillwater or Gold Fields) during the qualifying periods between 12 March 1965 and 10 December 2019 indicated in schedule F of the trust deed.
“Living mineworkers must have permanent lung impairment from silicosis or TB that they contracted while doing risk work at these mines, with specific assessment
criteria outlined in Schedule H of the Trust Deed. For deceased mineworkers, there must either be evidence that TB was the primary cause of death within a year of leaving the mine (if the mineworker died before 10 December 2019), or evidence that they had silicosis (applicable if they died after 1 January 2008), or died from silicosis.”
Lusanda Jiya, Tshiamiso Trust’s stakeholder relations and communications executive, said at least R2.14-billion had been disbursed as compensation by the end of February 2025, which was received by 22 634 claimants.
Jiya said challenges with other claimants included some being hard to reach, while others struggled to obtain necessary documents to support their claims, especially for deceased persons.
If a claimant dies after lodging the claim, it then needs to be taken over by an executor.
