Swapo Party lawmaker, Sebastian Karupu, has urged the National Assembly to pass a motion that will compel the government to begin compiling information on Namibians who worked in South African mines.

Karupu moved a motion in parliament last week to include Namibian former mine workers in South Africa in the ongoing compensation for ex-mine workers from Southern Africa.

During a recent workshop in Lusaka, Zambia, which he attended, Karupu said it was revealed that there is N.dollar 10 billion in unclaimed settlement trusts, pensions, provident funds and compensation due to current and former mineworkers.

He said the Compensation Commissioner for Occupational Diseases in Mines and Works (CCOD) in South Africa is currently administering the scheme.

The lawmaker said that the suffering of mine workers from occupational lung diseases, including tuberculosis, has forced the South African government to compel the mining sector to compensate current and former workers.

‘Currently, there are only 65 records of
ex-mineworkers from Namibia with the Compensation Commissioner for Occupational Diseases. This is due to the fact that the scheme finds it difficult to trace former mineworkers,’ Karupu said in his motivation.

He said that former mine workers from South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique, Eswatini, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe have already started receiving compensation.

‘Namibian former mineworkers are among the former Southern African migrants who worked in the South African mines who did not yet receive their compensation,’ he said, adding that further details are needed of mineworkers from Namibia that worked in the South African mines.

Karupu observed that Namibians are included in the ‘others category’ in the list of migrant workers who worked in South African mines from the years 1906 to 2006 due to a lack of data.

Records from CCOD indicate that N.dollar 2.5 billion has been paid out in the past 25 years.

The records further indicate that there is N.dollars 1.2 billion in unpaid claims for about 73 000 c
laims owing to the inability to track and trace the claimants or beneficiaries.

‘It is against this background that I move that this August House discuss and debate this motion and possibly pass it for the government to facilitate the process of collecting data on the Namibian former mineworkers who worked in South Africa. This can be done through the constituency offices countrywide,’ Karupu said.

Namibians were among thousands of men from across southern Africa recruited to work as cheap labour in South African industries, including mines, since early 1900 through the Witwatersrand Native Labour Association, he added.

Source: Namibia Press Agency