Anglo Turns on the Lights

"...Having announced that it would offer free antiretroviral drugs to thousands of its employees in South Africa, [mining company Anglo American] was denounced last week by [President Thabo] Mbeki's government and rival mining firms. For government and business leaders to criticize the provision of medicine by private companies to their sick employees is not only puzzling but raises large moral issues.

"...What Anglo has realized is that HIV/AIDS threatens every aspect of social and economic activity. ...Vast mineral resources are the main source of the country's export earnings, but a healthy work force is needed to extract them. To date, most businesses in Africa have responded to HIV/AIDS by attempting to get rid of infected employees. The statements of Anglo's rivals demonstrate a combination of short-termism and denial. 'Throwing drugs at it' won't help, said Brian Gilbertson, chief executive of BHP Billington.

"Anglo did its own homework and concluded the opposite: Treating the infected population is essential if industry is to survive in South Africa. Anglo has calculated that HIV/AIDS currently raises the cost of producing an ounce of gold by $5, and will raise it by $9 unless the health of the workforce is substantially improved. Anglo's action isn't pure altruism; it believes that providing antiretroviral drugs to employees makes good business sense.

"A big part of the problem here is the ignorance about AIDS and its causes, which the Mbeki government is content to perpetuate, lest the real awareness create a powerful political constituency. ...Instead of educating people, the government of the country that stands to lose the most from this disease is doing less about it than almost any other government in Africa.

"For the moment, President Mbeki's official policy is to keep South Africans in the dark with vague statements such as 'the greatest cause of ill health in South Africa is extreme poverty.' A poorly educated society may readily take his word for it. But if AIDS wipes out billons of export earnings and spreads its debilitating effects to a larger percentage of the population, there may come a time when it will no longer be possible to dismiss the disease, and the efforts of forward-looking employers to deal with it, so easily."

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