Financial Gazette (Harare)
Richard Chimbiri
6 September 2007
analysis
Harare — Picture it. You're on the job, driving trucks across the border.
It's close to midnight and you are waiting for one or two documents to be processed so you can move on to the next leg of your journey. Every 10 minutes a woman knocks on your window and offers you sex - for a fee. Sometimes it's in exchange for a trip to a given destination.
Such, ladies and gentleman, is the life of Zimbabwe's truck drivers. That truck drivers are at high risk of contracting HIV because of their work is common knowledge. What is not known, however is that the transport companies have counted the costs, and have decided not to take things lying down.
"The costs (of HIV) are there to speak for themselves when you are paying a salary to a driver who's not doing any work for six months," says Terrence Kwaramba, HR manager at Pioneer Transport, the trucking division of Pioneer Corporation.
Kwaramba says for some time now the company has had an HIV workplace policy that covers awareness, prevention and treatment issues. Condom use is obviously a biggie at Pioneer. Drivers can collect them discreetly at the company before they hit the road. The company even sent a senior driver as part of its delegation to the recent symposium on HIV in the workplace, held in Zambia recently. The idea being he would carry positive messages back to his fellow drivers.
Kwaramba says over the years Pioneer has seen improvements on issues of awareness and attitude change.
"We haven't done a scientific survey, but we keep an eye on indicators such as reports of sickness and how many drivers are on sick leave. Sick leave attributable to drivers has been going down over the years. You can even see that attitudes are changing."
However, HIV is still a concern for the company.
"This year alone we've lost three drivers to HIV-related illness and to us that's still too big a number," says Kwaramba.
Pioneer Transport's operations manager, Kelvin Motsi says the company has put in place some serious measures to back up its awareness and prevention efforts.
"While drivers are not allowed to carry unauthorised passengers, it is company policy that a driver can take his spouse on a trip. We have a parking depot at Beitbridge where drivers can sleep over and depot staff have the identification particulars of drivers and their spouses."
Speaking of depots, Motsi says Zimbabwe's transport sector would record massive victories in the fight against HIV if certain measures were implemented.
"The critical points are the borders. Governments should speed up the processing time so that drivers don't spend up to 10 days parked at a border post, as they do now."
Motsi says regulated infrastructure, such as that currently in use in South Africa, would help ease drivers' stays at the border. On the South African side of Beitbridge Border Post, the six-to-seven kilometer stretch from the border is a no-parking zone. Beyond that, truckers who wish to park overnight do so at a designated parking bay for a fee, Motsi says. A driver would have to go out of their way, to Messina, to get a prostitute -- and still drive back to the designated parking post -- which in itself acts as a deterrent for many drivers. Says Motsi: "Many trucking companies would be eager to co-operate with government to see the introduction of such infrastructure within the country's borders. Government-run parking bays are a good idea because they would benefit both large and small operators, who are struggling with implementing HIV policies". A heavy police presence at such bays would eliminate the prevailing problem of loitering for the purposes of prostitution.
Aside from the serious issue of HIV prevention, he sees another up side to such an arrangement for drivers. "Our drivers would get some undisturbed rest and be fresh for the next day," says Motsi.
Pioneer's Group PR Manager James Maridadi says HIV prevention and care efforts are not limited to the trucking division only, but to the group as a whole.
"HIV is a concern for all employees, regardless of their designation, therefore we have a number of activities lined up for National Aids Day. During the two weeks up to the day, our drivers and staff will have a chance to participate in these activities, as well as some social responsibility activities that we intend to carry out in the community on this day."
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