My father passed away due to silicosis complications. How can I claim benefits?

The long answer

There are two ways that you may be able to claim benefits if your father died of silicosis or TB:

1. Under the Occupational Diseases in Mines and Works Act of 1973 (ODMWA), which is the state compensation. It is administered by the Medical Bureau for Occupational Disease (MBOD). 

2. Under the Tshiamiso Trust, which was set up after a huge class court case for miners’ compensation resulted in a R5-billion settlement in 2018. 

I will explain how they both work. Let's start with the ODMWA:

ODMWA compensates for the following lung diseases caused by working in mines:

• Silicosis, which is common in gold and platinum miners;

• Coal Workers Pneumoconiosis or CWP, which is common in coal mineworkers;

• Asbestosis and Mesothelioma, usually found in asbestos mineworkers; 

• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (or COPD); and

• Pulmonary tuberculosis or TB (but ODMWA compensation will only be paid for TB if it was contracted at work or within one year of leaving work.)

Families have the legal right to ask for a free autopsy when a mineworker passes away from any illness, in order to see if he had an occupational disease like silicosis at the time of death. The costs for removing and sending the heart and lungs to the National Institute for Occupational Health (NIOH) in Johannesburg are fully covered by the Medical Bureau for Occupational Disease. 

If the autopsy confirms that he had silicosis, the family can lodge a claim for ODMWA benefits, which is state compensation.

To start a claim, you can contact the MBOD Call Centre directly at 080 1000 240.

Moving on to the Tshiamiso Trust:

The Trust pays compensation to ex-mineworkers or their dependants who had contracted silicosis or TB while working at certain mines between 12 March 1965 and 10 December 2019. The following six mining companies, covering 82 mines, are part of the class action settlement: African Rainbow Minerals, Anglo American, AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields, Harmony and Sibanye-Stillwater. 

If your father worked at one of these mines between 1965 and 2019, you may be able to claim benefits from the Trust as well as the ODMWA. A former miner would have to have contracted either silicosis or TB through their work at one of the qualifying mines. In terms of TB, a Facebook post in 2023 from Tshiamiso says the following about TB claims for deceased mineworkers:

“For mineworkers who died before 10 December 2019, there must be evidence (a death certificate or post-mortem/autopsy report) that proves that cardio-respiratory or pulmonary tuberculosis was the MAIN CAUSE OF DEATH. They must also have died within a year of leaving the mine. Without this, the claim will not be eligible for compensation.” 

It used to be the case that dependents of miners who passed away before 2019 might be able to get compensation from Tshiamiso if they had obtained an ODMWA certificate, which is a certificate issued specifically for silicosis and tuberculosis under MBOD. 

But a 2025 GroundUp article reported that the Trust had since suspended the use of MBOD certificates as evidence for silicosis or TB diagnosis: Richard Spoor, whose legal team represented miners during the class action lawsuit, said the Trust had discovered that the MBOD did not have clear standards for diagnosing silicosis and TB. The Trust had up-to-date standards but the MBOD did not, and so the Trust could not rely on the MBOD certificates. He urged the MBOD to develop clear standards, so that money would not be wasted on unnecessary medical tests. 

The Trust ends in 2031. Compensation from the Trust is over and above the statutory benefits paid out by the MBOD, but a former mine worker (or his dependents) could qualify for both.

The Trust pays out compensation in a lump sum which is meant to be in addition to ODMWA (MBOD) benefits, rather than replacing ODMWA benefits. The Trust and MBOD each have their own medical and administrative policies, so you have to carry out what they each say to receive payments from both.

Tshiamiso says that all claims (by ex-miners or by dependants) must be lodged in person at one of their 41 lodgement offices. You would need to call the Tshiamiso call centre at 080 1000 420 to make an appointment and find out which lodgement office is nearest to you. (The MBOD (Medical Bureau for Occupational Diseases) also uses this same 080 1000 240 number for ex-mine worker benefit registrations.)

These are the documents that Tshiamiso says dependents must bring with them:  

• Your valid SA ID document or SADC passport

• SA ID document or SADC passport of the deceased mineworker

• Service records from the mines that the deceased mineworker worked at, industry card or proof of payments

• The deceased mineworker’s death certificate and, if available, an autopsy report

• Any available medical records of the deceased mineworker.

They say that if you do not have some of these documents, Tshiamiso will do its best to help find them. They say that certain documents, including employment records, may take time to verify, mainly because of bad record-keeping in the earlier years.

The GroundUp article noted that there had been severe delays in paying out claims. This was partly due to the requirement for unabridged death certificates: in rural communities where many former miners died at home, it was difficult to prove the cause of death because the death certificates often listed “natural causes”  as the cause of death. The Trust also said that it could not finalise many claims because some mining companies don’t agree that post-mortem reports provide enough evidence that silicosis or TB is the main cause of death.

The Trust has now changed the Trust Deed to allow claimants to provide a death notification form that has been certified by the attending physician as proof of the illness or medical condition that led to the death. 

Wishing you the best,
Athalie