South
Africa
gave the green light on Friday for class action suits seeking damages from gold companies for up to half a million miners who contracted the fatal lung diseases silicosis and tuberculosis underground.
The High Court decision sets the stage for protracted proceedings in the largest class action suits in
Africa's most industrialised 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 labour 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.