A century of miners' compensation in South Africa

Abstract

The year 2011 marked the centenary of compensation legislation for miners' lung disease in South Africa. This commentary aims to demonstrate that the current compensation system does not serve its intended beneficiaries, particularly the large population of former gold miners affected by high rates of silicosis and tuberculosis. The system has a complex legislative history, reflecting contending political, and economic forces, and characterized by racial discrimination. The financial basis of the system is currently in crisis owing to historical underfunding and failure to take into account the mounting burden of disease among black former miners. The real value of compensation awards fell sharply between 1973 and 1993, only partly recovering in recent years. Barriers to claiming benefits, particularly by black former miners who know little about the process, have been extensively documented. Integration of miners' compensation into general workers' compensation has been mooted since the 1980s but has stalled, owing to the high cost of closing the gap between the mostly inferior financial benefits under the mining legislation and those available under workers' compensation legislation. A recent constitutional court decision has opened the way for unprecedented civil litigation against the gold mining industry for silicosis, adding to the pressure for reform. A number of changes are called for: harmonization of financial benefits with retention of certain of the special arrangements for miner claims, a regional cross‐border system of medical examination points for former miners, education of miners about the system, and some degree of privatization of claims processing. Am. J. Ind. Med. 55:560–569, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Lung Pathology in U.S. Coal Workers with Rapidly Progressive Pneumoconiosis Implicates Silica and Silicates

“…These technological changes, while increasing efficiency of mining operations, may be associated with a risk of a more virulent form of coal mine dust lung disease. The implication of silica and silicate minerals as culprits in this disease parallels the resurgence of silicosis globally (29) and in industries other than mining, including stone countertops (30) and sandblasting of textiles (31). Exposures in the rapidly expanding hydraulic fracturing industry may portend additional cases of this preventable disease (32).…”

Conspicuous disease: The surveillance of silicosis in South Africa, 1910–1970

“…Black workers entitled under the law to compensation for silicosis from 1912 were denied access to the information or the institutions that were necessary to secure it. It was, in particular, the arrangements for the diagnosis and treatment of lung disease on the mines, hinged on the repatriation of workers to their rural homes, which had the effect of hiding the epidemic from view [Trapido et al, 1998;Roberts, 2009;Ehrlich, 2012]. Drawing on this research of a massive undocumented epidemic in the countryside, McCulloch has argued that the entire body of silicosis medicine was itself an elaborate facade, deliberately obscuring lung disease, on the mines and in the countryside [McCulloch, 2012;McCulloch, 2013].…”

Tuberculosis, mining and silica

“…By the second decade of the twentieth century legal provisions were in place for regular physical and radiographical examination of new and returning miners for silicosis and tuberculosis. Specific legislation provided for compensation for silicosis (1912) and tuberculosis (1916),2 including postmortem compensation based on autopsy. This system of examination and compensation has persisted to this day, although much amended and contested along the way, and extended to mining sectors other than gold.…”