CAPE TOWN, South Africa — The Catholic church in South Africa began shepherding a class action against the country’s three major coal mining firms seeking compensation for sick former workers and their families who died as a result of lung disease and other associated illnesses.
The outcome of this multi-million dollar lawsuit against the mining firms — South32, BHP Billiton and Seriti Power — could have a bearing on the lives of millions of current and former coal miners from all over southern Africa that toiled in South African coal mines for decades, in the process contracting deadly respiratory diseases.
