Counting the Cost: Gold Mining and Occupational Disease in Contemporary South Africa

Gold mining has been central to the success of South Africa's economy. That labour intensive industry has relied heavily on migrant workers for its profitability. In the past decade, scientists in Johannesburg and Cape Town have identified a pandemic of the serious occupational disease silicosis among gold miners. Litigation currently before South African courts raises the possibility of a class action by hundred and thousands of miners against the major corporations such as Anglo American. If successful that litigation may well change work regimes in the mining industry. This article explores the role of migrant labor, state regulatory authorities and science in hiding a pandemic which probably spans the 20th century.