Swazi leader slammed for blaming AIDS on truckers

JAMES HALL
MBABANE - A prominent traditional leader active in the fight against HIV/AIDS has blamed truck drivers for the spread of the disease in Swaziland.
“They take advantage of the poverty in the country to entice women into sex for money or a meal,” Chief Mzweleni Dlamini told King Mswati at a meeting of local leaders in the southern Shiselweni region last week.
The health ministry and HIV/AIDS groups are familiar with the problem of itinerant truckers plying the routes from Swaziland to Durban and Gauteng who are at risk of contracting and spreading HIV.
“Truckers do contribute to the spread of the disease, but they are not the principal cause of Swaziland’s HIV prevalence rate, which at nearly 40% of the adult population is currently the highest of any country in the world. But it is unfair to single them out, and inaccurate to say truckers are a principal cause of infection,” said AIDS activist Hannie Dlamini.
Chief Dlamini’s remarks that residents near the LaVumisa border post were “unfortunate” because they must encounter truck drivers were criticised by local business leaders keen to expand manufacturing and road freight in the southern region.