HIV/AIDS Pandemic Set to Knock South African Car Sales

The HIV/AIDS pandemic is set to decrease car sales in South Africa and is blamed in part for a decline in direct foreign investment in the country. At the Auto Africa Expo 2002, industry analyst Neal Bruton said with nearly 5,000 AIDS-related deaths each week, "vast numbers" of potential new car customers were dying. A reduction in disposable income, together with increased spending on medical care, will hurt South Africans' ability to finance new car purchases. Ian Robertson, chair of the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa, said the industry needs to address HIV/AIDS by providing treatment and counseling, and that providing drugs was more cost-effective than the loss of productivity from absenteeism and retraining.

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