Mozambique: SA provides €10M for miners illness compensation

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Mozambique: SA provides €10M for miners illness compensation

8:43 CAT | 18 Apr 2022

Image: Noticias

The South African Occupational Diseases Compensation Commission has provided around 160 million rand (€10 million) to compensate over 1,000 Mozambican miners, Mozambique’s labour minister has announced.

“In articulation with the South African authorities, we have monitored, from 2019 to 2021, the payment [of compensation] to a total of 1,593 beneficiaries,” Margarida Talapa said.

The process resulted in the disbursement of 160,198,625 rand, said Talapa, cited on Thursday by the Mozambican press.

Talapa was speaking during a multi-sector workshop on compensation for occupational diseases to Mozambican miners in South Africa, held Wednesday in Maputo.

The amount made available by the South African government refers to the payment of social welfare and compensation to Mozambicans who contracted occupational diseases in the mines, said the minister.

According to Talapa, there are still 1,644 eligible beneficiaries yet to be located, and there are also another 1,034 claiming their rights.

According to data released at the meeting, miners are a high-risk group for contracting lung diseases, especially silicosis and tuberculosis.

According to the authorities, in 2021, Mozambique registered 98,000 cases of tuberculosis, of which 2.7% were diagnosed in the high-risk group.

The extractive and mining industry in South Africa employs around 442,500 miners, of which 20,810 are Mozambican, in gold and platinum mines, according to the latest figures provided to Lusa by the South African Mining Council.

Source: Lusa