A fresh war of words has erupted between Lesotho nationals who are former mineworkers – through their association – and the Tshiamiso Trust.
The Trust is responsible for managing thousands of claims for mineworkers eligible for compensation due to contracting TB or silicosis from working in certain gold mines during specific periods between 12 March 1965 and 10 December 2019.
Silicosis is a lung disorder caused by inhalation, retention and pulmonary reaction to crystalline silica during mining, stone crushing, quarrying and such other activities. It is an occupational disease which profoundly affects the work productivity, economic and social well-being of workers, their families and dependents.
There’s no cure for silicosis because lung damage can’t be reversed. Treatment aims to relieve symptoms and improve quality of life. However, the condition may continue to get worse, leading to further lung damage and serious disability, although this may happen very slowly over many years.
As is to expected of any bout, there is a lot of accusations, counter-accusations, defences and denials. Most importantly, there is a lot of money involved.
We are not interested in whatever the bone of contention is. No Mosotho is.
However, we would like to remind both parties that there is something more important and bigger than them at stake here; and that is people’s lives.
Instead of flexing their muscles just to appear to be pursuing a noble cause or ‘leaving no stone unturned’ in seeing the compensation through, they should put the victims’ and their dependents’ interests above everything else.
It is common knowledge that the South African mines are not too pleased with compensating former mineworkers. There is also evidence that some of the completed compensation claims have been hijacked by unscrupulous recruitment agency employees who siphoned off ex-miners’ funds.
Now these are the bad guys. The government must go after them, for the sake of thousands of ex-miners permanently afflicted by silicosis and their dependants.
