Trust Information

The Kgalagadi Relief Trust is a legal entity and is strictly governed by the Trust Deed.

TheKgalagadi Relief Trust was registered in March 2003 under Letters of Authority No. IT1734/2003. The primary objective of the Trust is to provide compensation to Qualifying Claimants in respect of asbestos-related diseases. The Trust works to accomplish this as fully, fairly and effectively as its means allow. This is as set out in Clause 4 of the Deed of Trust.

The Trust will endure for a period of 25 years from the date of registration by the Master of the High Court. However, the Trustees having regard to the Primary Object, the interests of the initial Beneficiaries and the residual Beneficiaries may reduce or extend the life of the Trust by 5 years. This is as per Clause 10 of the Deed of Trust.

Five trustees were appointed in terms of Clause 6 of the Deed of Trust. A further two trustees were appointed to the Board in August 2013, currently bringing the total number of Trustees to seven.

Trust Deed

The Deed of Trust is a legal document that sets out the following in respect of the Trust and/or Trustees:

  • The legal basis for the creation of the Trust;
  • The primary object of the Trust;
  • The appointment, duties and responsibilities of Trustees;
  • The legal capacity of the Trust.

It sets out the qualifying criteria for a claim, the basis for calculating a claim and methods of paying compensation.

You may view/download the Deed of Trust below. Copies of the signed Deed of Trust are also available on request from the Head Office.

Download Deed

Our Trustees

Brian Duncan Graham Gibson

Brian has been a consultant to the asbestos mining and asbestos-cement industry on the management of so-called Asbestos & Health (A&H) issue since 1982. In this capacity he has monitored local and international developments regarding environmental, medical, social, legal and marketing issues.

He was a member of the multi-stakeholder Working Group appointed by the South African Parliament to organise the National Asbestos Summit held in 1998. He assisted with the drafting of the 1987 and 2001 Asbestos Regulations promulgated by the Department of Labour and the Asbestos Prohibition Regulations published by the Department of Environmental Affairs & Tourism in 2008.

He has been a trustee (currently chair) of the Kgalagadi Relief Trust since its inception in 2006. In this capacity he convened and chaired the National Asbestos Conference in 2008.

Markus Heitz

Markus has been a trustee of the Kgalagadi Relief Trust since 2006. He is a doctor of internal medicine and pneumology and also holds degrees in sleep medicine and insurance medicine.

He has been a consulting physician to several hospitals in Switzerland, including the Department of Thoracic Surgery at the University Hospital Zürich. He has consulted to the insurance industry on medical aid issues for 27 years. He was also in private practice in Zürich for 20 years.

He is now semi-retired but continues to consult internationally on respiratory disease and occupational medicine, as well as interventional pneumology.

He is a honorary member of the Swiss Society of Pulmonary Diseases and is an active member of the European Respiratory Society and the American Thoracic Society.

Richard Spoor

Richard is a South African activist and human rights attorney based in White River, Mpumalanga who has more than 25 years’ experience in complex litigation. A pioneer in the fight for workers’ rights and safety, he has become what The American Lawyer called the “bete noir” of the South African Mining Industry because of his unwavering commitment to holding mining companies accountable for their ill-treatment of workers, who are some of the country’s most underprivileged citizens.

He is a graduate of the University of Cape Town. He served his articles of clerkship with human rights lawyer Priscilla Jana in 1985 before joining labour law firm Cheadle Thompson and Haysom, where he became a partner. During this time, he represented people and organizations engaged in a struggle against apartheid. with the advent of democracy in 1994, he moved to White River Mpumalanga.

Richard focuses on the field of occupational health and safety. He has represented workers and trade unions in enquiries into some of the country’s worst industrial disasters in the chemical, construction, industrial and mining sectors. Over the last two decades he has negotiated a number of pioneering settlements between employers and workers, or their dependents, in relation to occupational injuries and disease following major mining and industrial accidents and occupational disease epidemics. His legal practice additionally embraces the fields of land reform and land/environmental rights, with special reference to the impact of mining on indigenous communities.