With more than 5 million people infected, the South African economy is paying a huge toll to AIDS. The macroeconomic consequences are important and the GDP is believed to fall in the next years because of the epidemic.
The microeconomic consequences are less known.
 
Every single company inSouth Africa suffers from AIDS.
Rather than trying to assess whether AIDS is a reality or not, every manager now has to calculate the cost of AIDS. Even if no employee is infected, the company is affected.
 
There are 9 good reasons for addressing the AIDS issue when you are a manager:
1. More and more South African are getting infected. They are your customers and your employees as well.
2. Whatever the size of your company, some of your employees are infected. Considering the national statistics, one out of three of your employees are infected. It's a fact and thinking that you know your staff well doesn't change the statistics.
3. Absenteeism, loss of productivity, training and recruiting costs are the main economic consequences of the scourge in your company. Because it is mostly indirect costs, you do not see them easily
4. Deaths among your employees and their relatives undermine your company's morale. Competitiveness is falling.
5. South African laws forbid any discrimination in recruiting employees. You cannot preserve your company from employing HIV+ people
6. It is scientifically proven that people with HIV have more accidents and make more professional mistakes, even if they are not sick yet.
7. The burden imposed onto the public health system is certainly going to conduct the State to raise new taxes
8. Your company's prosperity is linked to the national wealth. Addressing the AIDS problem in your company is more than a patriotic move, it is good management as well.
9. Depending on the level of your employees benefits, AIDS is already costing your company between R 10 000 and R 30 000 per employee per year. For a 100-employee company, the cost is already between 1 and 3 million rand