Business needs to maintain funding that is aimed at addressing the scourge of HIV/ Aids on the workforce and the economy, according to Brad Mears, the chief executive of the SA Business Coalition on HIV/Aids (Sabcoha).
Business also had to improve the outcomes of these initiatives, he said yesterday.
Mears said the private sector had committed a significant amount of money to fight the scourge but that the outcomes were poor. Business, through Sabcoha, had in the past five years spent R100 million on various projects aimed at minimising the impact of HIV/Aids on the economy.
“There is good growth, good traction, but we would like to see better outcomes in relation to what we invest,” Mears said.
He said HIV/Aids impeded growth by 1 percentage point every year, with 1 000 people dying every day from the disease. The impact on the economy was also felt through the rate of absenteeism, skills that were removed from the system and the cost of providing treatment.
According to the 2011/12 budget, total expenditure on the comprehensive HIV/Aids conditional grant would amount to R26.9 billion over the medium-term expenditure framework period. This was based on an increase in the number of people on treatment from 1.2 million this year to 2.6 million by 2013/14.
Mears said another reason for business not responding the way it was hoped was the economic downturn, which had reduced the money available from the private sector, the government and donors.
“We tend to pick up a strategy for a year or five years, drop it, and move on to the next one. We need a 25-year review so that the short term adds up to the long term,” said Mears.
“Employers can increase circumcision awareness. They can promote education of workers, share the cost of circumcision and provide facilities on site. Public-private partnerships are the only way to have sustainable impact.”
One of the recent Sabcoha initiatives was that of backing the government’s HIV counselling and testing (HCT) campaign. Through this campaign, launched last year, the government wanted to have 15 million people tested by June this year.
Sabcoha would spend more than R500m on carrying out wellness tests on 2 million people until December this year. One million people who belong to medical aid schemes would be tested and another 1 million who were uninsured.
The organisation launched a Community Fund that would be used to raise money for tests among poor communities.
Mears said Sabcoha had approached 30 companies and thus far AngloGold Ashanti, Eskom and Xstrata had responded, either by doing the tests or contributing to the fund.
According to Bizwell, a web-based HCT reporting tool, 60 000 people had been tested, and 64 companies and 32 service providers were registered.
Fidel Hadebe, the spokesman for the Department of Health, said the department was encouraged by the number of people who had been tested. He said it was never about the numbers, but about instilling a culture of knowing your status. - Business Report