'Huge delays in payouts to miners with silicosis and TB’ 25 July 2025

“Every day, I pray that people may have compassion for my family and give us something to eat, as we always run out of food,” says Nonkolelo Jijingubo, of Virginia. The 56-year-old mother of three is one of thousands of claimants who are losing hope they will ever be compensated by the Tshiamiso Trust. The trust was established to pay out claims over 12 years, following a R5-billion silicosis and TB class action settlement in May 2018. Six mining companies (covering 82 mines) are party to the agreement: African Rainbow Minerals, Anglo American, AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields, Harmony and Sibanye-Stillwater. Ex-miners who worked between March 1965 and December 2019 and suffered lung impairment due to TB or silicosis from exposure to dust and chemicals may qualify for compensation.

…Justice for Miners (JFM), an advocacy group of ex-mine workers affected by TB and silicosis, says many people are in Jijingubo’s situation. JFM Eastern Cape head Ziyanda Manjati said their offices across Southern Africa were inundated by complaints from claimants who have not been paid compensation. “Some of these claimants have died while still waiting for medical tests, while others have been found ineligible for compensation despite having medical certificates from the Medical Bureau for Occupational Disease (MBOD) that confirm they have lung impairments,” she said. One such claimant, 60-year-old Sakkie Joubert, from Welkom, was medically boarded from Harmony’s Tshepong gold mine in 2019 after diagnosis with silicosis. Despite having an MBOD certificate confirming first-degree silicosis, his claim was rejected.

…JFM says the approximately 23,000 miners paid by Tshiamiso Trust to date is a drop in the ocean compared to about 500,000 potential claimants across South Africa and neighbouring countries such as Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. “Many of these potential claimants are not even aware that Tshiamiso Trust exists because the trust is not on the ground tracing ex-miners and creating awareness. The trust doesn’t seem concerned. At the 2024 AGM we attended, the trustees said they were relying on word of mouth to reach more miners,” said Manjati…This week, spokesperson for the trust Lusanda Jiya told GroundUp that it could not finalise claims such as Jijingubo’s because the trust was awaiting a decision on whether post-mortem reports can be used to determine the primary cause of death as Silicosis or TB.