AIDS initiative targets regional truckers

MBABANE – Regional hauliers driving through Swaziland are being targeted by an AIDS-awareness initiative launched last week by UNAIDS and the Ministry of Transportation. “Most truck drivers are not of local origin. They come from South Africa and many are nationals from other countries who work for South African and Mozambican firms making deliveries in Swaziland. They impact the AIDS situation here and when they return home. We cannot work with Swazi drivers only to the exclusion of other nationals,” Simon Mahlalela, a project officer with the Ministry of Health told FTW. “Workers in the transport industry, including longdistance truck drivers and railway employees as well as air workers, are at a high risk of contracting HIV because of their mobility and time spent way from their families,” Transport minister Elijah Shongwe told FTW at the launch of the Public Transport Sector HIV and AIDS Programme at Mbabane. Shongwe said studies commissioned by his ministry and UNAIDS found that while away from home, 62% of long-distance truck drivers had sex during their trips. 25% of drivers had sex every night they were away from home. Given Swaziland’s AIDS climate – the country has the highest HIV prevalence rate in the world – chances are the drivers will contract the virus in the landlocked kingdom that depends on ground transport for all its imports and exports. “This affects the transport industry in a variety of ways as it strikes hardest at the most productive segment of the labour force and reduces profits by imposing huge costs on enterprises, causes declining productivity, increases labour costs and leads to the loss of skills and experience. HIV and AIDS can destroy the capacity of the individual and countries to work and create work,” said Shongwe. The truckers’ AIDS project will provide free AIDS testing and counselling at border posts and key sites like Mbabane and the Matsapha Industrial Estate, and disseminate AIDS information to truckers.