Dr Motsoaledi must apologise to the families of 1 million mine workers without compensation

7 September 2016

By briefing the Health portfolio committee on the challenges facing the Compensation Commissioner for Occupational Diseases today, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi painted a picture of a compensation fund which, through the years, has become a total shambles. 

This state of affairs comes at the great cost of some of the most poor and vulnerable in our society – the sick mineworkers who have spent most of their working lives in unhealthy mining environments. 

The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls on Motsoaledi to apologise on behalf of successive ANC-led national governments to the families of over 1 million miners who have not received compensation for chronic lung diseases, acquired while creating the wealth of our nation. 

While we recognise that Motsoaledi is working hard to fix a monumental problem not of his own making, his ANC national governments have been responsible for what is no less than a monumental moral failure. 

After listening to Motsoaledi and the Compensation Commissioner, Dr. Barry Kistnasamy, at the Health committee today, we welcome Motsoaledi’s willingness to review the current effort in order to create a single compensation system for mine-acquired chronic lung diseases and occupational health. The current financial model is flawed and mine owners are inexplicably relieved of any liability. 

It has been estimated that over 1 million mine workers contracted chronic lung diseases called pneumoconiosis (earlier, miners’ phthisis, later tuberculosis) over a period of 20 years. 

 A shockingly high number of 800 000 miners have died since. This is an extraordinary moral failure of successive governments and the mining industry. 800 000 workers and their families were never compensated for chronic lung diseases while doing dangerous mine work. 

For the compensation system to work efficiently, every mineworker exiting the mines has to be x-rayed and their health status monitored over a long period of time. This simply did not happen, because the Mines Medical Board was derelict. Today, however, this has been turned around and the DA welcomes this development. 

The Compensation Commissioner is working as hard as possible to process the claims of the remaining 200 000 claims and those who have entered the compensation system since. The mining industry will be subject to a massive compensation fine, which our current mines, who carry historical liability, will not be able to pay. 

The class action suit on behalf of about 40 000 miners provides a clue as to the scope of these claims. If settled, it would cost R5 billion. If this prompts further suits faster that the Compensation Commissioner can pay, it will cost about R24 billion. The Fund currently has R3.349 billion available. 

The compensation fund has been chronically underfunded. Government failed to increase the levy over the years sufficient to fund accurately projected pay-outs. This must be remedied, but the model that combines lung disease and occupational health compensation as described at the Committee has major unsolved problems. 

The idea seems to be to shift current and future employees of controlled mines or controlled works from the Occupational Diseases in Mines and Works Act, 78 of 1973 (ODIMWA) to Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act, 130 of 1993 (COIDA), for purposes of occupational lung disease compensation. 

ODIMWA is long-term insurance for workers for diseases monitored over their lifetimes, for which they or their families are compensated. This is funded by a levy on mine owners. 

COIDA is short-term insurance for accidents and diseases that arises in the course of an employee’s service. Injured workers note their claims against the insured employer, who notifies the insurer and lodges the claim, which is really about reimbursing employers for wages lost while they were not at work. Reimbursing employers is the bulk of the work and the costs of the insurer. 

The cost, which likely to be substantial, of integrating the two systems must first be established and the funding models for what are two different types of schemes (combining the equivalent of long-term and short-term insurance) confirmed. On face value, the system will easily go bankrupt. 

The cost of compensation and medical aid will shift from mine owners to employers. Employers are the contract miners. It lets the mine owners off the hook. It will also prejudice health and safety on the miners simply because contract miners do not have the funds for substantial contingent liabilities.

Issued by Wilmot James, DA Shadow Minister of Health, 7 September 2016