{"id":13728,"date":"2012-08-21T15:04:52","date_gmt":"2012-08-21T13:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/08\/update-1-s-africa-gold-miners-face-lung-disease-lawsuit\/"},"modified":"2012-08-21T15:04:52","modified_gmt":"2012-08-21T13:04:52","slug":"update-1-s-africa-gold-miners-face-lung-disease-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/update-1-s-africa-gold-miners-face-lung-disease-lawsuit\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATE 1-S.Africa gold miners face lung disease lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

(Adds quotes, details)<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

By Wendell Roelf<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

CAPE TOWN<\/span> Aug 21 (Reuters) – South Africa’s leading gold
\nminers are facing a potential lawsuit on behalf of thousands of
\nworkers who claim they contracted silicosis, a lung disease,
\nthrough the companies’ negligence.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

A South African lawyer filed the first papers on Tuesday
\nagainst AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields and
\nHarmony, in a preliminary step to determine whether the
\ncourt recognizes the case as a class action.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“If the certification is granted we anticipate that this may
\nbe the largest damages suit in the history of this country, in
\nthe tens of billions of rand possibly,” lawyer Charles Abrahams,
\nwho represents more than 3,000 mostly former miners, said.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The mining companies had declined to comment in detail ahead
\nof the filing. A spokesman for Gold Fields said on Tuesday he
\nwould not comment, while officials at the other two firms were
\nnot immediately available.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The suit, which has little precedent in South African law,
\nhas its roots in a landmark ruling by the Constitutional Court a
\nyear ago that for the first time allowed lung-diseased miners to
\nsue their employers for damages.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Silicosis is a disease that causes shortness of breath, a
\npersistent cough and chest pains and makes people highly
\nsusceptible to tuberculosis, which kills. It has no known cure.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Abrahams said the claim was separate, but similar, to that
\nof fellow lawyer, Richard Spoor, who represents several thousand
\nmore claimants. In March, Spoor said he would soon file his
\nclass action papers against the same mining companies cited by
\nAbrahams.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Adds quotes, details) By Wendell Roelf CAPE TOWN Aug 21 (Reuters) – South Africa’s leading gold miners are facing a potential lawsuit on behalf of thousands of workers who claim they contracted silicosis, a lung disease, through the companies’ negligence. A South African lawyer filed the first papers on Tuesday against AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-13728","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13728\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}