Do I qualify for benefits if I was diagnosed with TB three years after leaving my mining job?

The long answer

As you probably know, there was a historic agreement made in 2018 between six gold-mining companies and the lawyers for their ex-miners to pay R5-billion in compensation for workers who had contracted silicosis or TB as a result of their working in these mines between 1965 and 2019. These are the mining companies to this agreement: African Rainbow Minerals, Anglo American, AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields, Harmony and Sibanye-Stillwaters.

These were the terms of the Agreement in terms of TB claimants:

• First degree tuberculosis: an eligible claimant must: (i) have worked underground at a Working Group (WG) mine for two years; and (ii) have been diagnosed with first degree TB within a year of working at least one shift at a WG mine: R50,000.
• Second degree tuberculosis (has same conditions as the first degree TB). Additionally, the tuberculosis diagnoses are in line with Medical Bureau for Occupational Diseases (MBOD) definitions: R100,000. (my emphasis)

Unfortunately, only workers in the gold mines above were covered by the Agreement. And you will note that a TB claimant would have to have been diagnosed within a year of working at least one shift at a WG mine.

Outside this Agreement, the compensation paid for contracting TB in a mine would be under the Occupational Diseases in Mines Works Act (ODMWA) of 1973. ODMWA provides compensation for occupational lung diseases in miners and ex-miners only. 

The medical assessments and certification of occupational lung diseases are done by the Medical Bureau of Occupational Diseases (MBOD), which falls under the National Department of Health. The Compensation Commissioner for Occupational Diseases (CCOD) pays out the compensation to eligible current and former mineworkers.

ODMWA covers the following lung diseases:

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

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

• Asbestosis/Mesothelioma, usually found in asbestos mineworkers;

• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD); and

• Pulmonary tuberculosis or TB (but only if it is contracted while at work or within one year of leaving work). (Again, my emphasis.)

ODMWA is an old Act, and historically the benefits under ODMWA have been less than those paid out under the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (COIDA). It was acknowledged in a 2018 Parliamentary working group that ODMWA was problematic and that the Department of Health was not capacitated enough to deal with the more than a million ex-miners.

But on the bright side, the Minerals Council, which had been concerned by ODMWA’s poor performance, says that it has, since 2019, paid out more than R600-million in levies to support MBOD and the CCOD on behalf of its members. This has meant that during the last five years, more than double the claims (nearly 8,000 a year compared to 3,700 a year in the past 23 years) have been finalised. The processing of submissions to the MBOD was reduced to 90 days from 500 days.

And importantly, the value of benefit payments has increased by 33% since 2018. 

The Minerals Council is waiting for the National Department of Health to finalise amendments to the ODMWA to enable the CCOD to charge proper cost-reflective levies from the mines, and for the payments under ODMWA to equal those under COIDA.

So what can you do about a claim for your severe TB and hospitalisation for over seven months in 2019, when your TB was not diagnosed within a year of leaving work at Sishen?

The TB in the Mining Sector in South Africa programme says that it is estimated that 89% of mineworkers have latent TB infection. (My emphasis.) They explain that although ex-mineworkers are entitled to compensation for occupational related illnesses, access to these funds requires routine screening and assessment, and few facilities in the region are equipped to provide these screenings which effectively denies ex-mineworkers access to compensation for themselves and their families. 

Ex-mineworkers are entitled to a free Benefit Medical Examination (BME) every two years at facilities that are accredited to conduct these examinations

My advice would be to get a BME, but first to get a comprehensive written report from the hospital on your TB, and given the severity ask them to state whether you could have had a latent infection that was not diagnosed within the mandatory year for claims after leaving the mine. You could take this report and show it to the BME examiner, explain your situation, and ask if the severity of your TB and the likelihood that you had latent infection would mitigate the fact that your symptoms only appeared in 2019 when you were hospitalised. You could submit this to MBOD along with the examination results. 

You could also ask an organisation like the Q(h)ubeka Trust for help and advice. The Q(h)ubeka Trust assisted many of the goldmine workers with silicosis and TB to claim their money under the Agreement. These are their contact details:

Please Call Me: 076 4755 042

Email: info@qhubekatrust.co.za

Wishing you the best,
Athalie