Between Cause and Cure : The Mining Industry and HIV/AIDS Governance in South Africa

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Hönke, Jana:
Between Cause and Cure : The Mining Industry and HIV/AIDS Governance in South Africa.
In: Börzel, Tanja ; Thauer, Christian (Hrsg.): Business and Governance in South Africa : Racing to the Top? - London : Palgrave Macmillan , 2013 . - S. 67-87

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Abstract

The story of HIV/AIDS and the mining industry in South Africa is complex. It is also more controversial than that of other sectors discussed in this volume. Two interrelated factors account for the particularity of the case. Firstly, mining companies have contributed significantly to the spread of HIV/AIDS through the use of their 120 year-old migrant labor model. At the 2010 HIV/AIDS conference in Durban, the South African gold mining sector came under heavy criticism from medical practitioners, ex-miners, advocacy groups and the South African Minister of Health for its part in the tuberculosis crisis that affects the industry and its workforce. An activist with the Aids and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa referred to the industry as “TB factory”1. The health minister, Mr. Motsoaledi, stated that “[if] TB/HIV is a snake in Southern Africa, we know that its head is in South Africa in the mines. We are exporting TB and HIV throughout the region”.2 Secondly, the mining industry was early in identifying HIV/AIDS as a key risk to its operations. Already in the 2 mid-1980’s initial responses were developed. However, the overall exclusionary nature of these first approaches laid the ground for some of the difficulties in the implementation of comprehensive prevention and treatment policies later on. The analysis of the mining sector provides important insights into the specific political and normative conditions under which companies have historically addressed a problem such as HIV/AIDS in a way that contributes to improved collective goods provision.