Anglo American sued over lead poisoning in Zambian mining town

A group of Zambian women and children on Wednesday filed a suit in South Africa against mining company Anglo American, alleging its lead operations in the northern city of Kabwe caused widespread poisoning, lawyers said.

Legal representatives Mbuyisa Moleele Attorneys said they had applied for certification from the court to allow for the class action to go ahead.

They approached the Gauteng high court on behalf of a class estimated to comprise more than 100,000 individuals in the Kabwe District of Zambia who are believed to have been poisoned by lead.

The application was brought by 13 plaintiffs on behalf of children under 18, and girls and women who have been or may become pregnant in the future.

“They have suffered injury as a result of being exposed to lead,” Zanele Mbuyisa told AFP, adding that children born in the area suffered neurological difficulties.

“With regards to women of child-bearing age… lead seeps into the bones and when a women becomes pregnant it then seeps into the organs and crosses the placenta into the unborn child.”

Lawyers said operations of the Kabwe mine, originally known as Broken Hill, had caused widespread contamination of the soil, dust, water, and vegetation, poisoning generations of children.

The main sources of this poisonous lead were said to be from the smelter, ore processing and tailings dumps.

Kabwe mine was part of Anglo American from 1925 until 1974, the period in which experts say two-thirds of the lead currently in the local environment was likely to have been deposited there.

The plaintiffs, mainly women and children, are demanding compensation and a clean-up of the area.

The class action suit will go ahead once the courts give the green light for the process to begin.

mgu/tgb