Cape Town - The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) applauds the decision by the Health Department to compensate former mineworkers who contracted tuberculosis or silicosis while they were still working.
The union says this is long overdue as South Africa’s economy was built through the hard work of such mineworkers.
This comes after the Health Department said it wants to compensate some of the miners who contracted tuberculosis or silicosis while working for some mines in the country.
Speaking to Newzroom Afrika, NUM health and safety secretary Masibulele Naki said that it had not been an easy journey to reach a point where workers will be compensated. A stumbling block had been the court battle between NUM and the health department.
“It has been a court battle for quite some time, where we had to force the government to listen as union representatives and we are the only union that was representing these workers, especially those who previously worked at the mines.
“So after it was ruled by the court that these former mineworkers must be compensated, the department had no choice but to start to roll out these compensations from provinces such as KwaZulu-Natal and Northern Cape,” he said.
Naki also said they were pleased that former mine workers, who had started working in the sector when conditions were not good and who had as a result contracted diseases, would be compensated.
He further said the union wanted to be directly involved when the Health Department started rolling out compensation to ensure this was done properly.
On Monday, the Department of Health announced it had started with a process of screening, verification, medical examination and payment of benefits to eligible former mine workers who had contracted tuberculosis (TB) or silicosis while working for certain mines in the country during a period between March 1965 and December 2019.
The department said in a statement that the countrywide programme would kick-off in the northern parts of KwaZulu-Natal before moving to other provinces, and the department was calling on all former miner workers or their dependants to visit their nearest lodgement site in their areas.
“The claimants are urged to bring along relevant documents, such as a valid South African ID or SADC passport, industry card, service records from the mine they worked at or any available medical records, as well as [in the case of a deceased mineworker] a death certificate and an autopsy report, if available.
“The compensation amount will depend on a number of factors, including the severity of the permanent respiratory impairment suffered by the mineworkers and their employment history at qualifying and non-qualifying mines,” it said.
It further maintained that “in the case where the mine worker has passed on, the dependants are urged to submit the relevant documents, including a death certificate”.
“A claim for a mineworker who died before 10 December, 2019, will only be eligible if the main cause of death is attributed to silicosis or TB, or there is an approved Occupational Diseases in Mines & Works Act (ODMWA) certificate or other exceptions.”
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