South African Gold Miners And Respiratory Disease

EDM number 1260 in 2013-14, proposed by Ian Lavery on 02/04/2014.

That this House recalls the tributes paid to Nelson Mandela, a great fighter against apartheid and a founding father of democratic South Africa; notes that 27 April 2014 will be the 20th anniversary of South Africa's first democratic election; expresses its concern that one of the legacies of apartheid which has not been addressed is that thousands of South African gold miners, mostly from rural areas that were the primary sources of apartheid migrant labour, have been decimated by epidemic rates of silicosis, an incurable, preventable, respiratory disease that increases susceptibility to tuberculosis, which is endemic in rural areas where TB rates and drug-resistant TB are soaring, constituting what a leading medical expert has described as a river of disease flowing out of the gold mines; believes that delay in providing improved testing and treatment will mean more and more of those with silicosis and TB will suffer and die uncompensated leaving their families destitute; further notes that a number of South African mining companies are now listed on the London Stock Exchange; calls on the companies that were involved in gold mining urgently to provide decent compensation and improved health care, including screening and testing for silicosis for those who may have and do have the disease; and urges those companies to make public commitments to do so in 2014, the 20th anniversary of democracy and freedom in South Africa and prior to the first anniversary of Nelson Mandela's death.

This motion has been signed by a total of 43 MPs.