Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia - July 28, 1999
Darren Schuettler

The rate of infection with HIV, the virus which causes AIDS, among SA's mineworkers is 7 to 17% above other population groups, and could reach 50% within the next few years, she said.

The impact on SA's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) could add up to 1-2% annually, and companies will need more labour to maintain current production.

"Industries that are heavily reliant on a relatively skilled labour force, of which mining is foremost, have to face the fact that 5-10% of their workforce every year will be lost to AIDS," Janina Slawski, convenor of the Actuarial Society of SA's AIDS Committee, told a seminar in Johannesburg.

Slawski estimated that by 2004, up to 15% of the country's mining workforce will be less than half as productive as they are now. SA is the world's leading miner of gold and platinum, and a major producer of coal and base metals.

The industry has suffered a wave of retrenchments in recent years, particularly in the gold sector. But the sector still employs close to 500 000 people and is the country's biggest earner of foreign exchange.

SA has the fastest growing HIV infection rate in sub-Saharan Africa, estimated at 1 500 new infections per day. But the problem is worse on the mines, where most workers live in single-sex hostels and the virus spreads easily through prostitution.

A recent study of mineworkers in the Carletonville area, home to SA's biggest gold mines, showed that up to 75% of prostitutes in the area were infected with HIV. The study, conducted by the Epidemiology Research Unit, estimated that the infection rate among Carletonville mineworkers was more than two-thirds higher than the national average.

"It is clear that the conditions of mineworkers' lives are ideally suited to the spread of HIV, both at the mines and in their rural homes," said Brian Williams, a research scientist at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.

The impact on mining companies would be far reaching, analysts said. Aside from illness-related absenteeism, the disease will put enormous strain on the mines' in-house hospitals, death and disability funds, and medical aid. Within five years, companies will need to employ 20% more labour to achieve the same output as today, Slawski said.

"Apart from the obvious human tragedy, the impact on each individual company's bottom line is enormous," she said.
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