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20 Indus. L.J. (Juta) 845 (1999)
The Employment Equity Act and HIV/AIDS a Step in the Right Direction

handle is hein.journals/iljuta20 and id is 871 raw text is: The Employment Equity Act and HIV/AIDS a Step in the Right Direction MARK HEYWOOD* FATIMA HASSAN** INTRODUCTION By 1997 it was estimated that three million people in South Africa were infected with HIV, approximately six per cent of the population. With 1 500 new infections daily, South Africa has one of the fastest rates of new HIV infections in the world.1 In South Africa, a combi- nation of poverty, illiteracy, migrant labour, commercial sex work and disruptions to family and communal life have increased the indi- vidual's risk of HIV infection.2 Because of the substantial impact that HIV will have on the economically active population, it is now also evident that the workplace will not be able to escape the effect of the AIDS epidemic. Experts have warned that: 'HIV/AIDS will impose significant economic costs over time. In advanced epidemics, many companies are losing 3% of their employees to AIDS each year. Increases in morbidity will have an impact on major employers, most noticeably through increased absenteeism and possibly lower productivity. Increased mortality will create an additional need for retraining (skills replacement) and have a detrimental effect on many employee benefits. For smaller companies (in South Africa, compa- nies with fewer than 50 employees account for 20% of all those employed),5 the epidemic will have a particularly dramatic effect. But, employers and employee organizations have been slow to * BA (Hons) Oxford, Head of the AIDS Law Project, Centre for Applied Legal Studies, University of the Witwatersrand. ** 3A (LLB) (Wits), Attorney and Deputy Head of the AIDS Law Project, Centre of Applied Legal Studies, University of the Witwatersrand. U LNAIDS and WHO AIDS Epidemic Update (December 1998) at 3. 2 'How the Poor Die' Submission to Poverty Hearings, AIDS Law Project, May 1998 (ava-lable at www.hri.ca.partners/alp/). 3 Department of Health HIV/AIDS in South Africa: The Impacts and the Priorities (1998) at 17. 4 ibid. 'Most projections of economic impact in African countries have suggested that a generalised AIDS epidemic will reduce the GDP growth rates by about 1% per annum. In South Africa ... the effect will be less than this until at least 2010' at 19. See also HIV/AIDS and Human Development in South Africa (UNDP 1998). s Ntsika/Department of Trade and Industry The State of Small Business in South Africa (2 ed 1997).