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Mining for answers: Tuberculosis research informs class action sought by gold miners

Nature Medicine volume 22, pages 330–333 (2016)Cite this article

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Zwelakhe was the first to get ill. After starting to lose weight and cough up blood, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) in 2004. Later that year, he was let go on medical grounds, aged only 44. Three years later, Watu also lost his job after contracting TB and silicosis, a lung disease that is common among gold miners and results from breathing in silica dust. Watu was awarded a measly 48,000 rand (R) ($3,100) in compensation from a national fund. Zwelakhe may have qualified for a similar sum; like many others in his position, however, he was either unable or did not know how to claim his dues. In the end, he walked away with nothing.

Today, the Dala brothers are listed among 69 miners who are seeking redress from gold-mining companies in what will become—if the courts allow it to proceed—South Africa's largest-ever class-action suit. If the case goes forward, hundreds of thousands of miners and their dependents could stand to gain millions of Rand each in return for losing their ability to work to silicosis or TB. Science would be at the heart of the case, with the submission of numerous studies conducted on the very mining populations seeking reparations.

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  1. Linda Nordling is a freelance journalist based in Cape Town, South Africa.,

    Linda Nordling

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  1. Linda Nordling
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Nordling, L. Mining for answers: Tuberculosis research informs class action sought by gold miners. Nat Med 22, 330–333 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0416-330

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