CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — An appeal hearing opened Monday in South Africa on whether a subsidiary of British-based mining company Anglo American PLC was responsible for lead poisoning over decades that affected around 140,000 people in Zambia.
The class action by women and children asks South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal to overturn a judgment by a lower court that dismissed their case against Anglo American South Africa.
They allege that a mine in the Zambian city of Kabwe — which Anglo American South Africa was involved with from 1925 to 1974 — “poisoned generations of local people,” according to a statement from their lawyers.
The lower court in Johannesburg dismissed their case in 2023, ruling that there was a lack of initial evidence that they had been poisoned. It called their case “an unmanageable class action” because every one of the roughly 140,000 people would have to prove they suffered from illness caused by lead poisoning.
The judge in that ruling asserted that it could take 10 years for lawyers just to consult with all the people bringing the case.
Kabwe, in central Zambia, has been called one of the most polluted places in the world and was named in a 2022 United Nations special report as an area permanently altered by mining activity.
A Human Rights Watch report this year said that soil contamination in Kabwe reaches 60,000 milligrams of lead per kilogram. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says lead contamination over 200 milligrams per kilogram is hazardous.
Anglo American does not dispute that severe contamination occurred in Kabwe but says it only held a minority share in the Zambian company that operated the mine.
“An attempt is being made to hold (Anglo American South Africa) liable for a mine we have never owned nor operated and for pollution and harm that others have caused and freely acknowledged as their responsibility,” Anglo American said.
Zambia was rocked by another mining disaster this year when a Chinese company was accused of covering up the extent of a toxic spill that resulted in tons of cyanide, arsenic, copper, zinc, lead and other pollutants flowing into a major river that millions of people rely on for drinking water and for irrigating crops.