S. African business slowly wakes up to AIDS challenge
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When Martin Vosloo told his work colleagues that he was infected with the virus that causes AIDS, some spat in his face and threatened to kill him.
That was about six years ago, soon after Vosloo, 48, joined South Africa’s power utility Eskom.
“They spat in my face. I was called names and on two occasions I had to flee because I was threatened with death,” said Vosloo, a healthy-looking white South African.
Social stigma and denial are major challenges in the fight against the disease in South Africa, the country with the highest number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the world.
Years on, the hostility is fading for Vosloo who now leads a support group for HIV-infected workers at Eskom, where about one in ten of the 30,000 workers are infected with the virus.
Several big firms, such as Eskom, De Beers, the world’s biggest diamond producer, and miner Anglo American have in the past few years stepped up efforts to test their workers for HIV, and treat infected staff—in a bid to save their bottom lines.
COST TO BUSINESS
AIDS hurts businesses as workers die, requiring others to be hired and trained. Sickness results in lost working hours. Most workers who die are in the 30 to 50 age group, when they are at their most economically productive.
New figures say more than 6.5 million of South Africa’s 47 million people may now be HIV positive.
Amid rising anger over a slow response to the disease, the government launched a public anti-retroviral drug campaign in 2003, the second largest worldwide after Brazil’s. But the drugs haven’t reached many, and companies have had to help battle the disease.
Eskom says it pays for anti-retroviral (ARVs) drugs for its HIV-infected workers and their infected spouses. De Beers does the same, even after the workers have left employment.
The power firm, which runs a testing and counselling clinic, ties performance bonuses for its managers on how many of their staff have visited its testing and counselling clinic.
Anglo says it aims to lift the rate of testing this year to 50 from 21 percent in 2004 for its South African workers.
“Testing is key, because early detection means loss of man hours due to sickness or death is minimised,” said Brian Brink, Anglo American’s senior vice president in charge of health.
At De Beers, about ten percent of staff, or about 1,000 workers, are infected with the virus. The firm’s AIDS project is run in close collaboration the miner’s union.
“De Beers is a model in the mining industry. No other company gives ARVs to its workers and their spouses even after they leave employment,” said Archie Palane, the National Union of Mineworkers’ Deputy General Secretary.
“In other companies, when a worker is found to have AIDS, they become among the first to go when retrenchments come.”
TREND-SETTERS
The New York-based Global Business Coalition (GBC), which groups 200 international companies fighting the impact of AIDS says Eskom, De Beers and Anglo are global trend-setters.
Some 40 South African firms have joined the GBC, including Barloworld, Telkom, SAB Miller, Sappi, FirstRand, Old Mutual, Liberty Group and many run similar AIDS programmes for their workers.
“We are not yet doing enough to start winning the war, but Eskom, De Beers and Anglo American are at the very front edge of testing and treatment worldwide,” said Richard Holbrooke, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who heads the GBC.
But the biggest challenge was being faced by small firms.
“Most people in Africa ... work in businesses that employ less than 20 people, and these have no real programmes to deal with AIDS. It’s a complicated problem.”
A survey issued in April showed most mid-sized South African firms are turning a blind eye to HIV/AIDS despite forecasts the epidemic is set to ravage the country’s workforce.
Just half of business owners surveyed had a formal strategy to tackle AIDS, and of those, over a third had no one to oversee that policy, the Grant Thornton 2005 Business Owners Survey showed.
“NOT MY PROBLEM”
Shane, the owner of an auto repair garage and petrol station, said he had few resources to tackle AIDS among his staff of 15.
“I do not know their status, and it’s really not my problem,” said Shane, who declined to give his full name and the name of his business. “Maybe if one falls ill we will know, but we’ve never had testing here.”
Holbrooke said he had no immediate answers for small firms. But starting “opt-out” testing - where workers are routinely offered HIV tests - was an important step, he said.
Those who do not wish to be tested can always refuse, Holbrooke added, citing neighbour Botswana where treatment numbers have jumped since 2002 after the country launched routine testing.
Challenging the myths about AIDS and changing workers’ attitudes through education is essential, says Vosloo.
“I guess the fact that I am white has also helped shatter myths, especially among black colleagues, that this is a disease for them,” Vosloo said. “I also prove one does not have to be skinny and have pimples all over the face to have HIV.”
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