{"id":25315,"date":"2016-05-13T05:54:21","date_gmt":"2016-05-13T05:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/south-africa-gold-miners-to-sue-over-lung-disease\/"},"modified":"2016-05-13T05:54:11","modified_gmt":"2016-05-13T05:54:11","slug":"south-africa-gold-miners-to-sue-over-lung-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/south-africa-gold-miners-to-sue-over-lung-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa gold miners to sue over lung disease"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{Former gold miners in South Africa can go ahead with a class action against mining companies over health damage allegedly caused by their work, a court in Johannesburg has ruled.}<\/p>\n<p>The high court decision paves the way for what would become the largest class action in South African history.<\/p>\n<p>The ex-miners say they contracted silicosis, an incurable lung disease, after years of working in the mines.<\/p>\n<p>The court said that a class action was &#8220;the only realistic option&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Phineas Mojapelo&#8217;s decision could lead to a court case lasting up to 10 years, the BBC&#8217;s Nomsa Maseko reports from Johannesburg.<\/p>\n<p>But the former miners are still hopeful that the case could help improve their lives as well as those of their families, our reporter says.<\/p>\n<p>Among the defendants in the case are Anglo American, AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields, Harmony Gold, Sibanye Gold and African Rainbow Minerals, the Reuters news agency reports.<\/p>\n<p>The lawyers representing the miners believe this court ruling marks the first step towards justice.<\/p>\n<p>Most of the miners who allegedly contracted silicosis while working underground have been unable to work for many years, dependent on government grants for a living.<\/p>\n<p>The claims, going back decades, also involve former miners from neighbouring countries such as Lesotho.<\/p>\n<p>One of the companies in this case, Anglo American, reached a $30m (\u00a321m) suit with 400 miners in a separate silicosis case.<\/p>\n<p>It is not clear if this class action will be settled out of court, but for the miners who say they have waited for too long, a speedy resolution would be a form of justice.<\/p>\n<p>Silicosis, caused by inhaling the silica dust in gold-bearing rocks, can lead to breathing difficulties, regular coughing and chest pains, and it can also lead to tuberculosis.<\/p>\n<p>Gold mining has played a central role in South Africa&#8217;s history, with Johannesburg, its largest city, being built on the gold reefs.<\/p>\n<p>But in recent years, its contribution to the economy has declined with the metal contributing 1.7% to GDP in 2013, according to Statistics South Africa.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-12282 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/_89681614_gettyimages-154327184.jpg\" alt=\"Miners have long campaigned for compensation for the health damage allegedly caused by their work\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{Former gold miners in South Africa can go ahead with a class action against mining companies over health damage allegedly caused by their work, a court in Johannesburg has ruled.} The high court decision paves the way for what would become the largest class action in South African history. The ex-miners say they contracted silicosis, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-25315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25315\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25315"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=25315"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=25315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}