Volkswagen South Africa (VWSA), which to date has spent about R4 million on its HIV/Aids workplace programme, has found through the voluntary testing of 60 percent of its roughly 6 000 workers that 6 percent are HIV positive.

Andreas Tostmann, VWSA's managing director, disclosed this on Friday when reporting that the company had been awarded for business excellence in the workplace by the Global Business Coalition on HIV/Aids. VWSA is the second locally-based motor manufacturer to receive international recognition for its programme to counter the pandemic.

DaimlerChrysler South Africa (DCSA) received the same award in 2002. Alex Govender, VWSA's corporate health services manager and the director of the company's HIV/Aids programme, said the group was unable to quantify the cost of HIV/Aids to the company to date but it would cost 2.2 percent of its payroll by 2012 if the company left the epidemic unchecked.

Tostmann said more had to be done to stop the spread of the global killer. "Unfortunately, many companies believe that Aids is not their problem," he said.

"They deflect the responsibility to governments, to international health organisations, to HIV/Aids community structures, rather than accepting the responsibility.

In today's global economy, a disease that has killed more than 30 million people is everybody's problem." Tostmann said VWSA's fight against the pandemic began four years ago.

"Volkswagen recognised that the epidemic posed one of the greatest challenges to business development and that some of our future leaders, managers and workers at all levels ... could be affected.

"We sought to minimise these implications through a comprehensive HIV/Aids workplace programme."

The HIV/Aids prevalence rate in the motor manufacturing industry is far lower than in other industries.

For instance, it is estimated at about 30 percent in the gold mining industry and at 10 percent to 12 percent in the platinum industry.

DaimlerChrysler SA and BMW South Africa have fully fledged HIV/Aids workplace programmes.

Clifford Panter, DCSA's co-ordinator of HIV/Aids workplace policy, said the group had had 95 percent participation in voluntary HIV/Aids testing since 1991.

Richard Carter, a BMW SA spokesperson, said more than 92 percent of the group's workforce had been voluntarily tested for HIV/Aids. Between 6 percent and 6.5 percent were HIV positive.