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A long-running legal battle to call a British company to account for its asbestos mining practices in South Africa three decades ago ended on Friday (21 Dec.) with a UK21-million (R420-million) out of court settlement.

Cape plc mined asbestos in the Northern Cape and Northern provinces for 90 years up to 1979.

At least 7500 claimants stand to benefit from the settlement which will be paid out through a trust fund, London lawyers Leigh, Day and Co, who were acting for the victims, said.

A total of R220-million will be paid out to asbestos-related disease (ARD) sufferers within the next six months and a further R200-million over the next ten years.

In return, the South African government will have to undertake not to fund future legal claims against Cape plc, and not to pursue it for any costs related to the rehabilitation of former mines and plants.

Claimants will have to show they suffered from an ARD as a result of working at, or living in the vicinity of, one of Cape’s former mining, milling or manufacturing operations, the lawyers said.

The trust will be called the “Hendrik Afrika Trust”, in honour of an asbestosis sufferer from Prieska in the Northern Cape.

The trust will be overseen by five trustees – two nominated by the South African government, two by the claimants and one by Cape plc.

“The trust scheme will be available to sufferers who are involved in the UK legal action and any one else who can satisfy trust conditions, including relatives of deceased victims of ARD,” the law firm said in a statement.

The level of payment will broadly correspond with the severity of the ARD.

Mesothelioma sufferers may be awarded up to R105000, asbestosis victims up to R65000, pleural thickening/pleural effusion patients up to R32000 and people with pleural plaques up to R14000.

“This brings to an end the long legal battle fought by 7500 claimants since 1997,” pressure group Action for South Africa (ACTSA) said in a statement.

ACTSA, the successor to the Anti Apartheid Movement, has led a public campaign in Britain to hold Cape plc accountable for what ACTSA called “its lax health and safety conditions in its asbestos mines and mills in South Africa”.

In Britain, the campaign was also vigorously supported by a number of members of Parliament and the country’s Transport and General Workers Union as well as the human rights group Amnesty International.

Acting ACTSA director Aditi Sharma, who returned from visiting the affected communities in the Northern Cape and Northern Province last week, on Friday said: “The communities will find it hard to believe that their long struggle for justice is finally over.

“Today’s settlement is one further step in the process of truth and reconciliation in South Africa. The deal cannot address the devastated lives of hundreds of families, but at last is a recognition of their immense suffering.”

The settlement follows weeks of intense negotiations and pressure from all parties including a recent visit to the UK by a high level delegation from South Africa, led by the premiers of the Northern Cape and Northern Province.

“When Cape left in 1979, it didn’t once look back at the death and devastation it had knowingly created,” Northern Province premier Ngoako Ramatlhodi said in response to the settlement.

“But now finally, the local South African communities can have a sense that the global justice system didn’t pass them by.”

His Northern Cape counterpart Manne Dipico also welcomed the deal.

“Over the years we’ve kept the belief that this matter will be resolved in the best interest of our people. Now that the waiting is over, the next step is to begin to make a meaningful impact on the lives of those who have had to live with this trauma.”

National Union of Mineworkers spokesman Archie Palane said too many multinational companies neglected the health and safety of workers in the raw pursuit of profits.

“This case should offer a valuable lesson to those companies who continue this form of inhumane exploitation today. NUM would like to see the establishment of industry-wide compensation funds that mean that workers do not have to fight protracted legal battles like this one.”

The NUM played a major role on the South African side of the struggle.

Shadrack Molokoane, a spokesman for the Mathabatha Health and Asbestos Association in the Northern Province, said the settlement was a victory.

“Although we cannot recover those lives that were lost to asbestos, the people in our community are happy with this settlement. We are happy that the company has learnt something from this – there is no way that workers can be exploited in this way again.”

In the Northern Cape, Cecil Skeffers of the Concerned People Against Asbestos said the victory had been hard-won.

“I have lost my smile in this long asbestos struggle. In my entire life I will never forget the past five years – it fills me with anger and disappointment seeing people filled with pain and suffering,” he said.

“The human rights abuse that took place here cannot be excused. CPAA mourns the loss of so many families here and offer our prayers. On the other hand we also try and live in hope and at least there is a new openness about asbestos now.”

Despite the known dangers, Cape mined and milled asbestos with a minimum of safety precautions.

In 1979, when it closed its operations, and disinvested from the country, it left behind a legacy of disease and pollution.

Cape’s South African workers were exposed to 30 times the British legal limit of asbestos dust without adequate protection.

“To date, Cape has settled British cases for compensation but has used every legal loophole to shirk responsibility for the thousands of South African victims,” ACTSA spokeswoman Clare Riches said.

Lawyers acting for Cape and for the claimants decided to settle after it became clear the victims would likely win their case when the matter went to trial in April.

But that victory might have sunk Cape and forever end any hope ARD sufferers had of compensation.

“In those circumstances the only real achievement might have been to set another legal precedent with the victims receiving virtually nothing,” the Leigh, Day & Co statement said.

“This would have been a ‘hollow’ victory for the victims.”

During the time it took to reach the settlement,300 of the claimants died.

The case was bitterly fought by both sides as there was much at stake for both sides.

The fight came before the English Court of Appeal twice and also before the House of Lords, the British Parliament’s upper chamber – which has some judicial functions – the same number of times.