The Tshiamiso Trust has paid more than half a billion rand to 5 829 eligible silicosis and TB claimants and their families and is gaining increased momentum in processing claims.
Daniel Kotton, CEO of Tshiamiso Trust, says: “In April, we announced that we had reached R320 million in payments to qualifying claimants in the 16 months since our inception. Two months later, we are excited to announce that we have surpassed that milestone and reached over R500 million in payments, placing us at 10% of our lifetime target of R5billion in the second year of operations. This exceptional achievement owes to the strong partnerships we have established, the continuous enhancement of our systems, and the expanded operational capabilities as we have grown our footprint in South Africa and neighbouring countries”.
We are also pleased to inform claimants that the Trust has ramped up its efforts in processing Deceased claims, thereby addressing a significant backlog that had accumulated. The past few months have seen the Trust building system capabilities for tracking down and authenticating historical medical records, as well as the searching and validation of dependents to be added as beneficiaries. We have successfully certified our first batches of claimants and are in the final stages of the payment process. We are in communication with the successful claimants.
Read: South Deep mine’s latest results show a sustained improvement in its turnaround
The Trust has come under much criticism, mostly related to unhappiness about the speed of processing claims, or discontent based on a limited understanding of our very stringent requirements for compensation.
In response to the frustrations that claimants are experiencing, the Trust would like to express the following:
- The Trust would like to thank claimants for their patience. We understand the socio-economic pressures and remain committed to ensuring that compensation payments get to eligible claimants as quickly as possible.
- Some claims will naturally take longer to process than others, and this is in most cases because of insufficient documentation. Claims related to deceased mineworkers are especially difficult to process as death certificates often state that the claimant died from natural causes, making no reference to silicosis or TB. As the Trust we have partnered with various government bodies and provincial health departments to access historical health data, unabridged death certificates, post-mortem reports, and medical records from clinics and hospitals. This is a mammoth task in itself, since some archives dating back to 1965 have not been digitized.
- The Trust is currently working to establish additional means of communication to claimants to assist them in understanding the complex requirements for compensation laid out in the Trust Deed. To this end we have engaged with a number of stakeholders and have conducted a number of training and outreach workshops and will continue to do so over the rest of this year. Many claimants will still be unhappy that they do not meet the requirements, but we are committed to empowering claimants so that greater numbers are successful in their claims.
Over 90 000 mineworkers and their families have lodged claims with Tshiamiso Trust so far, and any potential claimant is urged to check their eligibility to lodge a claim. They can do this by checking online at https://www.tshiamisotrust.com/status-check/ or by calling our contact centre 0801 000 240 (South Africa) / 0027 10 500 6186 (outside South Africa).
Claimants are reminded to be careful of people impersonating the Trust or promising to help speed up their claims. Only the Tshiamiso Trust can process claims. This is a FREE service. Claimants must only share their documents with the officials at the lodgement offices.
Useful links:
To view the claims process: https://www.tshiamisotrust.com/information/how-to-claim/
To view daily progress of claims and payments: https://www.tshiamisotrust.com/information/progress-report/
