Ailing South African miners pin hopes on British courts

PRIESKA, South Africa (AP) -- The asbestos mines were closed nearly two decades ago and lie derelict. But their legacy is killing residents of this small rural town.

Hardly a week goes by in Prieska without a death caused by the lung-destroying asbestos fibers that blew off the nearby mines and dumps. The clinics are besieged by wheezing and coughing patients.

The poor black and mixed-race people of Prieska are seeking justice in a lawsuit filed thousands of miles away in the British courts, a compensation claim lodged against the London-based company Cape PLC, which indirectly controlled a number of asbestos businesses in South Africa.

About 3,000 people are party to the suit, including some 700 residents of Prieska, which is about 400 miles southwest of Johannesburg.

Cape PLC says that most of its South African businesses were held indirectly through subsidiaries and that it is not liable for their debts. In any case, it argues, it sold the asbestos companies two decades ago and the new owners should be responsible for any liabilities.

Hendrik Phetlo is pinning his hopes for survival on the lawsuit.

The 47-year-old former miner is a prisoner to his bed, unable to stray from the machine that feeds oxygen to his ravaged lungs. Too sick to work, he and his wife, Elizabeth, can no longer afford their 150 rand ($21) monthly rent and fear they will be evicted.

The legal wrangle for compensation has dragged on for three years and is expected to continue unless the company submits to mounting pressure to settle out of court.

Through a fit of coughs and gasps, Phetlo talked of what he would do if he received a compensation award.

"I will get a doctor that can make me better," he said. "They will never get me completely better, but maybe they will make it easier to breathe."

Thousands of people worked in Cape PLC-controlled asbestos factories and mines, and tens of thousands more have inhaled dust and fibers that blew into their homes from the asbestos dumps. The British law firm Leigh, Day and Co., which represents the plaintiffs, registers new claims and fields dozens of queries from across the country nearly every day at the branch office it has set up in Prieska.

For many, compensation will come too late. About 45 people have died already this year, said Jack Adams, a security officer who is chairman of a support group for victims of asbestos-related diseases.

"The people are very angry at what Cape PLC has done," Adams said. "They should settle as quickly as possible."

Cecil Scheffers, secretary of the support group, said the company knew as early as 1902 about the dangers of asbestos, but did nothing to warn people or to contain the damage until it stopped operating in South Africa in 1979.

The families of Prieska are a case study in disease. Very few have not lost relatives or friends to some asbestos-related illness.

In the past 10 years, Dr. Deon Smith, the district surgeon, says he has seen no new cases of asbestosis -- a lung-ravaging disease caused by the inhalation of asbestos fibers.

However, he diagnoses up to 15 new patients every year with lung tumors caused by asbestos exposure. Smith expects tumors, which can take 40 years to develop, to keep showing up for another two decades.

"It's one of the most painful and degrading kinds of cancers -- you become totally dependent on other people," he said. "It's a death sentence. They all die within two or three years."

Asbestos dust killed Margaret Tembu's husband and one of her sons, and most of the 72-year-old's contemporaries have died as well. Her four surviving children have to fight for breath, and Tembu herself suffers from asbestosis.

In her youth, Tembu and her family worked at the Koegas mine, 50 miles west of Prieska, breaking up ore with a hammer for 25 cents for a 12-hour work day.

When she became too sick to work, Tembu was given the equivalent of $1,200 in compensation and fired.

"The mine never said you are going to die or get sick," she said bitterly.

Most of the sick barely survive on a monthly state disability pension of 540 rand, about $77. With about 50 percent unemployment in the area, the grant is the only source of income for many households.

After years of frustration, the plaintiffs recently won a major victory when Britain's House of Lords ruled their case should be tried in Britain, where they believe they have a better chance of winning compensation and where the case will be financed by legal aid.

Cape PLC, which now works in asbestos removal, had argued that the lawsuit belonged in South Africa's courts because it involves asbestos mines and dumps here.

Eva Gouws, 66, who like her sister Tembu toiled at the Koegas mine and contracted asbestosis, is uninterested in the legal complexities of the case.

"Just tell them," she said, "to pay me my money before I die."

Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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