Class-action silicosis case likely to take six months to settle as three new companies join the matter
Hopes of a quick resolution to the occupational lung disease (OLD) class-action, which includes thousands of former miners afflicted with silicosis, have been tempered, with expectations of a settlement to take to the courts expected in the next six months instead of early this year as three new companies join the matter. Speaking on the sidelines of the African Mining Indaba, Graham Briggs, the former CEO of Harmony and now chair of the working group on OLD, said the lawyers and parties involved in the class-action were hammering out a complex settlement, with a lot of details needing to be resolved before the matter could be returned to court for ratification. There were hopes last year that an agreement for which six mining companies have made provisions totaling R5bn could be in place by the end of December, which was then rolled over to the end of March this year. "Realistically speaking, I’d say it’s going to be six months before we have something finalised that we can take ba...
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