Former miners due R1.3bn in unclaimed benefits for lung diseases

The government is struggling to trace almost 75,000 former miners who are owed R1.3bn in compensation for lung diseases contracted at work, parliament heard on Tuesday.

Most of the miners were assessed more than two decades ago, during an era characterised by poor record keeping and extensive delays, health department compensation commissioner Barry Kistnasamy told MPs.

“People were not paid on time because the system had collapsed,” he told Business Day shortly after presenting the Mines and Works Compensation Fund’s 2025/26 strategic plan to parliament’s portfolio committee on health. Few records are available for older claims, despite the legal requirement that clinical records be retained for 40 years, he said.

A total of 66,000 claims approved before 2005 have yet to be paid because the Compensation Commission for Occupational Diseases (CCOD) doesn’t know how to contact the beneficiaries, or even if they are still alive, he said. About a third of the approved claims are for migrant workers from neighbouring states, and a third more are for former miners from the Eastern Cape.

He appealed to MPs to support a high-level imbizo to garner political support for a renewed push to find eligible claimants and pay them their dues.

“We have the money but we can’t track and trace the individuals, even though we have tried desperately,” he said. The Compensation Fund, from which claims are paid, is in a sound financial position, and had assets of just less than R6bn at the end of the 2024/25 financial year.

The CCOD only pays compensation to people who have contracted lung diseases — such as silicosis, tuberculosis and asbestosis — due to their working conditions.

Claims are assessed by the Medical Bureau for Occupational Diseases’ certification committee, which determines whether a miner or former miner qualifies for a payout. Other work-related injuries and diseases are covered by the compensation system operated by the department of employment & labour. 

The CCOD has in recent years dramatically improved its systems and now takes just three months to conduct a medical examination, assess claims for compensation, and pay out eligible beneficiaries, said Kistnasamy. It has paid out R1.98bn to claimants over the past nine years.

Kistnasamy was appointed by health minister Aaron Motsoaledi in 2012 to turn the institution around after a decade of qualified audits from the auditor-general. It has received unqualified audits since 2021/22.

He previously told parliament that part of the reason for the historic disarray at the CCOD was that it was not provided with enough resources when it was deracialised after the end of apartheid. It was originally established to serve the needs of a relatively small number of white miners, and wasn’t given commensurate budget increase when its mandate was expanded to include people of all races.

The CCOD has sought to trace former miners by exchanging data with other institutions, including some of SA’s biggest banks, retailer giant Shoprite, the SA Social Security Agency, the health department, and the Mine Workers Provident Fund, he told MPs. It recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the department of home affairs to exchange data, and hopes to work in a similar vein with the Electoral Commission of SA, he said.

Kistnasamy also drew attention to the billions of rand in other unclaimed benefits due to former miners, ranging from pension and provident funds to payouts from the Unemployment Insurance Fund.

The Financial Sector Conduct Authority estimates R88bn is owed to South Africans in unclaimed benefits, and that the mining sector accounts for the biggest share of this figure.

• The CCOD call centre number is 080 100 0240. Individuals can upload their details online at: https://exmineworker.com/home

kahnt@businesslive.co.za