Lara Rall reports on a Rhodes study that uncovered the misery of miners sent home to die in the Eastern Cape.
Lara Rall reports on a Rhodes study that uncovered the misery of miners sent home to die in the Eastern Cape.
Thandile Qwalela was just 20 when he migrated to Gauteng in 1980 from the poverty of the Eastern Cape to find employment. Over the next 17 years he worked underground as a stopper and a winch driver in the gold mines. In 1997 he was retrenched after falling sick with TB.
Mine regulations, dating back to 1985, said in-service TB cases should be treated by the mine hospitals. But Qwalela was sent home, back to the Eastern Cape. His bosses didn't tell him about the free medical examinations he could undergo every second year under the Occupational Disease in Mines and Works Act.
For more than 10 years after his retrenchment he had no medical tests. His local health services also failed to tell him about his statutory rights – he was entitled to compensation. Qwalela’s TB recurred in 2008 and he was admitted to the TB ward in the district hospital.
He died at the age of 48, leaving his wife, who now collects and sells wood to provide for their three children. There are many more stories like this, according to Jaine Roberts, Director of the Research Office at Rhodes University.
Speaking at a seminar hosted by the Departments of Politics and International Studies and Sociology at Rhodes University last week, she said, “It is easy for them [former mine workers]to become invisible once leaving the mining industry.”
The focus of the seminar was Roberts’s study, “The Hidden Epidemic Amongst Former Miners”, conducted in 2009 in the Eastern Cape. It evaluates the functioning of the Act and assesses the current and historical monitoring of occupational lung diseases in former miners.
Almost 70% of former miners interviewed said they had lung problems. Silicosis, formerly also known as “phthisis”, is an incurable lung disease caused by breathing silica dust which is found in gold mines.
Studies show that silicosis and underground work are high risk factors for pulmonary TB and have other recognised complications such as loss of lung function, severe lung fibrosis and lung cancer. Under the Act, the miner gives up his right to sue the mining company for any occupational acquired lung disease in return for lifelong health monitoring and compensation.
The act states that a mine worker who is diagnosed with silicosis while still employed may receive compensation. This is based on an individual’s wage and is capped at a maximum of R2000 a month.
This is paid as a lump sum, equivalent to 18 months’ salary for a 10–40% loss of lung function (first degree) or 36 months’ salary for a 40–100% loss (second degree), depending on the lung function assessment. These calculations apply not only to the living, but also to the dependants of the deceased.
Of the former miners interviewed 99% had no knowledge of the Act and most of them therefore had not received any compensation. In addition, many did not receive old age pensions or child grants and had no other form of income.
The study shows that a staggering 93% of the interviewees experience periods of starvation. One former mine worker told the researchers: “Last week we had pap, a mixture of wild herbs and mielie-meal, and mixture of samp and beans. We are starving here. Nobody receives any grants in this family. We need something to help us feed our families.”
According to the Mine Health and Safety Act, the monitoring and surveillance of in-service miners is the responsibility of the employer, while that of former mineworkers is the responsibility of the Department of Health.
But Roberts’s study found that 78% of affected miners had never undergone a lung function test and about 45% had not even had an X-ray through their local health services. More than half had dug deep into their pockets to consult a private doctor.
None of them received any information about the Occupational Disease in Mines and Works Act from their private doctors. According to the study, some were given referral letters to apply for disability grants, but none had been successful.
