As expected, South Africa’s high court in Johannesburg has certified the class action lawsuit brought on behalf of victims in the world’s largest listeriosis outbreak against Tiger Brands.

It means that by March of next year, South Africa will see a court drama play out on behalf of all 1,060 victims of listeriosis outbreak including the survivors of the 216 who died.

Individuals do have an “opt-out” option if they want to pursue justice on their own. Otherwise, everyone affected by the massive listeriosis outbreak will be covered just as outlined in the application for the lawsuit.

The class action addresses four categories of outbreak victims. The first group includes people who contracted the disease and survived. The second are those who lost a breadwinner to the listeriosis. Third are those supporting someone who contracted the illness.

The fourth category is children who were struck with listeriosis while a parent was still pregnant with them. The South African listeriosis outbreak was distinguished by its inclusion of almost 100 infants under 28 days old who were infected before birth.

The mortality rate for the outbreak was at least 27 percent. Complete information for all patients might yet push that figure higher.

All the plaintiffs in the class action are being represented by South Africa’s Richard Spoor Incorporated Attorneys against defendant Tiger Brands, one of the country’s top food companies.

According to the World Health Organization, the listeriosis outbreak in South Africa began in 2017 and continued until mid-year 2018. South African Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi gave his country’s processed meats the all clear at a Sept. 4 media briefing.

The Culprit for the outbreak was a processed meat product, similar to bologna and hot dog products in the U.S., that is known as polony in South Africa. Polony is a cheap source of protein, popular with South Africa’s poor.

The outbreak was directly linked to the ready-to-eat meat product from the Tiger Brands-owned Enterprise Foods plant in Polokwane. Environmental swabs tested positive for the outbreak strain from inside the plant.

Tiger Brands exports meat products to at least 15 other countries, which also either recalled or banned imports during the listeriosis outbreak. The 15 other impacted countries were Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nambia, Nigeria, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Polony produced by Tiger Brands was found contaminated at a Soweto daycare center after nine children fell ill.

Lead attorney Richard Spoor says the certification of the class action would not have been as speedy if Tiger Brands had exercised all its options to slow the process.

Spoor says his attorneys are representing the victims on a contingency basis, meaning without charging them. The attorneys will cover the costs and then “recover the money from Tiger Brands.” The trial itself will be a “multimillion-rand” case. (The Rand is legal currency in the Common Monetary Area between South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, and Namibia, although the other three countries do have their own currencies pegged at par with Rand.)