Justice for Miners held a high-level meeting with Anglo American South Africa to demand action to protect compensation for former miners and their families

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – 6 May 2026

Justice for Miners held a high-level meeting with Anglo American South Africa to

demand action to protect compensation for former miners and their families

Yesterday, 5 May 2026, representatives of Justice for Miners (JFM) and Action for

Southern African (ACTSA) met with senior Anglo American South Africa (AASA)

executives, to urgently discuss the Tshiamiso Trust’s decision to remove the rights of

former miners and families of deceased miners to use medical certificates to lodge

their claims for compensation from silicosis and/or TB.

The Medical Bureau of Occupational Diseases (MBOD) certificates were part of the

Settlement Trust agreement of 2018 and the legally agreed mechanism to determine the

degree of silicosis or TB aOecting miners and thereby the level of compensation they

were entitled to claim.

Now, in a surprise and unilateral development, the Tshiamiso Trust trustees have

claimed these certificates are no longer valid, forcing sick miners to undergo new tests

and any widows to endure untold trauma in trying to claim the compensation they won in

the 2018 class action.

The other five mining houses involved in the Tshiamiso Trust are: Harmony Gold,

Anglogold Ashanti, Sibanye Stillwater, African Rainbow Minerals and Gold Fields.

This proposed change is in conflict with the trust deed and severely disadvantages

former miners and their families in claiming their right to compensation. Such an

action directly contradicts the words of Judge Vally when he determined the

settlement agreement.

Justice for Miners, with ACTSA, expressed outrage at the actions of the Tshiamiso Trust

and shared with AASA the realities of former miners and their families, living in severe

poverty and diOiculties due to these painful and terminal lung diseases. This attempt to

deny their access to compensation (involving amounts as little as R12,000) by the

Tshiamiso Trust is truly a shocking act of perpetuating injustice. For details on what this

change means for claimants (miners), read more here.

At the Anglo American plc AGM in London on 29 April 2026, ACTSA questioned the

corporation as to its responsibilities to the claimants of the TB and silicosis class action.

During the meeting yesterday in Johannesburg, the JFM representatives highlighted with

examples that the Tshiamiso Trust is not fit for purpose.

Ziyanda Manjati, JFM Eastern Cape Chapter chair, said: “The Trust has failed from the

outset to deliver for the people it was set up to serve because its operations do not put

the miners first”.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – 6 May 2026

Janet Khan, Richard Spoor’s representation on the Trust Advisory Committee (TAC),

said: “Tshiamiso means to make it right. The Trust has lost its way and it is failing to

deliver the principle of justice to the dying miners who are entitled to compensation.”

Catherine Meyburgh, JFM, said: “The claimants are carrying the financial and physical

burden of having to prove they are sick and dying. That was not the intention of the trust

deed”.

Isabella Kentridge, legal researcher and advisor to ACTSA, said: “Anglo American

South Africa, as a party to the class action settlement, reserved powers of monitoring the

performance of the Trust and intervention where strictly necessary.”

Rachel Palma Randle, ACTSA Director, said: “Anglo American South Africa, with the

other mining houses, retains powers and responsibility for monitoring the delivery of

compensation, as set out in the trust deed. Anglo American must take an active and

inquisitive approach to ensure that the spirit of the settlement agreement and the letter

of the trust deed is delivered in a way which is fair to those who have been aBected by

silicosis and TB during their working lives in Anglo’s gold mines.”

ACTSA and Justice for Miners are taking action on behalf of an anticipated 500,000 former

miners and their families, who are eligible to apply for compensation to the Tshiamiso

Trust. Our organisations have worked together for four years on the problems arising from

the poor processes and lack of transparency displayed by the Tshiamiso Trust.

Notes to Editor:

• Justice for Miners was set up in 2019 to hold the Tshiamiso Trust accountable and

scrutinise the settlement agreement and its implementation.

• ACTSA, formerly the UK anti-apartheid movement, works with grassroots

organisations cross Southern Africa to amplify their voices and drive international

attention.

• Read more about Anglo American’s role in the contraction of TB and silicosis by

goldminers in ACTSA and JFM’s 2026 report Anglo American: the accountability

deficit, available here.

• The full text of the question asked by ACTSA, on behalf of JFM, at the Anglo

American plc 2026 AGM is below:

Question in relation to the Tshiamiso Trust (SA) with regard to settling the

Silicosis and TB class action of 2018:

“According to the Tshiamiso Trust hundreds of thousands of former miners who were

deemed unfit for work because of silicosis and TB disease, will no longer be able to

access the compensation arising from the Silicosis and TB settlement of 2019. This

is because the Tshiamiso Trust have unilaterally decided that the Medical Bureau of

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – 6 May 2026

Occupational Diseases (MBOD) certificates, used for decades to determine fitness for

work and retrenchment are no longer considered valid evidence for compensation

claims from the Trust.

- Justice for Miners, a South African charity supporting miners to make their

compensation claims, have registered their objection in the South African

courts. Our question for the AGM is:

- As one of the six settling mines and therefore legally committed to pay

compensation, how does AASA plan to intervene to prevent the proposed

amendment to the Trust Deed; and to ensure there are no barriers for their

former employees claiming compensation from the Trust which allows a

payment of between 12,000 Rand (£539) and 300,098 Rand (£13,500) with the

average payment being 96,500 Rand (£4,300) received by a total of, to date,

just 26,939 of the 500,000 potential claimants? What steps will AASA, in the

remaining five years of the Trust, take to ensure that the compensation

committed by the Mining Companies is finally paid out to former miners and

their families, as the trust deed intended, without further delay?”

Abbreviations:

• MBoD certificates – Medical Bureau of Occupational Diseases

• TAC – Trust Advisory Committee

For more information: contact Julia on media@actsa.org or (+44) 7521026605

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