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 The High Court decision sets the stage for protracted proceedings in
the largest class action suits in Africa's most industrialized
country. Analysts have said the suits could cost the gold industry
hundreds of millions of dollars.
Judge Phineas Mojapelo said workers who had died of the diseases
could be included in the suits, with any damages paid to family
members, and that each mining company should be held liable
separately for any damages.
"We hold the view that in the context of this case, class action is
the only realistic option through which most mine workers can assert
their claims effectively against the mining companies," Mojapelo
said in a unanimous ruling by three judges.
"Mining companies will be held liable or responsible for their own
actions for unlawful emissions," he said.
Some miners walked out of the courthouse triumphantly with fists
raised, while activists sang and danced outside.
"This will make a difference in our lives, because we have been
struggling for so long," said Vuyani Dwadube, 74, a former rock
driller who worked at Harmony Gold and suffers from tuberculosis.
In their heyday in the 1980s, South Africa's gold mines employed
500,000 men, and some medical research suggests as many as one in
two former gold miners has silicosis.
Silicosis is 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.
The defendants in the case include some of the world's biggest
bullion producers, who have been hit by a slide in commodities
prices and widespread labor unrest among miners.
The defendants include global miner Anglo American, Africa's top
bullion producer AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields, Harmony Gold,
Sibanye Gold and African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) which have together
formed the Occupational Lung Disease (OLD) working group to deal
with such issues.
Alan Fine, a spokesman for OLD said in a statement the gold
companies were studying the judgment and each firm would decide
whether to appeal the court ruling.
"Either way, it should be noted that the finding does not represent
a view on the merits of the cases brought by claimants," Fine said.
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DAMAGES
Shares in the gold companies shares were mixed following the ruling,
some tracking a stronger price for the precious metal.
"Certainly it will have an effect on their reserves. Most of them
probably made provisions," Gryphon Asset Management Chief Investment
Officer Abri du Plessis said.
"It's still too early to say what it will be (the damages) but it
does create a lot of uncertainty and that is never good for share
prices," he said.
There is little precedent in South African law for the class action
suits which have their roots in a landmark 2011 ruling by the
Constitutional Court that for the first time allowed lung-diseased
miners to sue employers for damages.
The claims stretch back decades and involve not just South Africans
but thousands of former miners from neighboring countries such as
Lesotho, Malawi and Swaziland.
That is why Anglo American, which no longer has any interests in
gold mining, and ARM, which no longer operates gold mines, have been
named in the claims.
Friday's ruling is separate from a $30 million silicosis settlement
with 4,400 miners reached in March by Anglo American and AngloGold.
(Additional reporting by Nqobile Dludla; writing by James Macharia;
editing by David Clarke)
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