the Financial Times

SA's tough antismoking laws, high duties on tobacco products, competition from illegal imports and the domination of the local cigarette market by British American Tobacco (BAT) are not enough to deter international tobacco groups from setting up shop here.

SA's tough antismoking laws, high duties on tobacco products, competition from illegal imports and the domination of the local cigarette market by British American Tobacco (BAT) are not enough to deter international tobacco groups from setting up shop here.

The national treasury has denied cutting SA's AIDS budget, describing international media reports to this effect as entirely without foundation. The department said when it released its AIDS treatment plan in November that it planned to have 53000 people on anti-AIDS medicines by the end of March, but had not yet treated people. The Financial Times said the treasury had slashed funding for 2003-04 from R276m to R90m without explanation. But the treasury's deputy director-general for public finance, Andrew Donaldson, said there had been no cuts. The cost estimates for the treatment programme might have been confused with the amounts actually agreed upon by the treasury and the health department. He explained that the 2003 budget had allocated R3bn for HIV/AIDS from 2003 to 2006. This money was allocated to the provinces via the equitable share, and was not specifically targeted at providing AIDS drugs. The treasury then announced an additional R90m in its adjustment appropriation budget in November. This was money earmarked for the provision of antiretroviral medicines in the remaining half of the financial year, which ends in March, he said. At the same time, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said in his medium-term budget policy statement that another R1,9bn had been budgeted for the drugs over the next three years, beginning with R300m for 2004-05, increasing to R600m for 2005-06, and then rising to R1bn for 200607. This money would go to the provinces as conditional grants. He said the allocations for AIDS drugs would be reassessed as the health department's treatment programmes progressed. (Source: Tamar Kahn, Business Day , February 4, 2004 )

Responding to investor concern about the potential impact of HIV/AIDS on South Africa's economy during the next 10 to 15 years, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange is considering a proposal that would require its listed companies to report infection rates among their employees and detail their efforts to fight the disease, the Financial Times reports today. The guidelines, which could come into force at the beginning of next year, would make South Africa -- where an average 25 percent of the economically active population is HIV-positive -- the first country to require a health declaration by listed companies. You've got to begin to wonder about the effect of HIV/AIDS when companies like South African Breweries say that they expect shrinking demand in South Africa, one London analyst said. It's partly because of the effects of HIV/AIDS on the market. In collaboration with the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants, the exchange is seeking ways to encourage companies to assess their exposure to HIV/AIDS. We are working with SAICA to see whether an accounting policy is appropriate and what form it should take, said the stock exchange president, Russell Loubser. (James Lamont, Financial Times, Aug. 15).