South African Gold Company Forms Pact with Labor to Treat HIV/AIDS

South Africa's second largest gold producer, Goldfields, has sealed an agreement with mining unions to test and treat workers for HIV/AIDS. The agreement has been approved by the influential National Union of Mineworkers and is the first such accord between trade unionists and employers in South Africa. Willie Jacobsz said that Goldfields believed some 25 to 26 percent of its 50,000 workers are infected with the virus, and the program will enable it to manage the pandemic and keep infected miners productive longer.

"We will counsel our employees to volunteer for HIV testing. Should they be negative, they can go back into the prevention program. If they are positive, they can go into the wellness program." The program has been piloted at Goldfields' Driefontein mines west of Johannesburg and will be launched at all its mines early next year. The wellness program will include immune boosters, nutritional supplements, management of STDs and treatment of HIV-related illnesses. The program does not provide antiretroviral drugs for those infected with HIV, Jacobsz said, except for rape victims and pregnant, HIV-positive employees to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the virus.

Jacobsz said Goldfields "would keep an open mind" but believed "antiretrovirals are not the panacea that they are made out to be and can be very dangerous." He said Goldfields has calculated that AIDS and the management of the disease costs the company about "four to five dollars for every ounce of gold we produce." The prevention program, in place since the early 1990s, includes managing STDs among workers and distributing condoms in miners' change rooms, their living compounds and nearby communities. "We distribute between 150,000 and 200,000 condoms every month. They disappear and we think people use them," Jacobsz said.

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