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Botswana to test all students for HIV
SAPA
2000-04-13

The office of the president of Botswana has suggested that students sent overseas for training should be tested for HIV and denied training if they test positive.

The office of the president of Botswana on 11/4 defended suggestions that students sent overseas for training should be tested for HIV and denied training if they test positive. Presidential spokesman Andrew Sesinyi told a press briefing in Gabarone that one in four of the economically active population in Botswana was HIV-positive. Why send someone for expensive training, when it is most likely they will not complete the course? It is a question of realism, not human rights, he said. Recently the Botswana government had to repatriate government-sponsored students with full-blown AIDS and incurred costs of an estimated R650 000. Sesinyi's remarks could indicate the government was thinking of revising its policy on testing for HIV and AIDS. He said the policy was that all testing must be voluntary and that there must be no discrimination in the workplace with regard to continued employment, training and promotion. Last month, Debswana, the 50/50 partnership between the Botswana government and the diamond company, De Beers Centenary challenged this policy. Debswana has insisted that all scholarship applicants undergo HIV tests and was considering testing all would-be employees. Debswana employs 6 000 people. Blind testing at its three mines has shown that 28 percent of them were HIV-positive. (Source: SAPA, 11/4/00)

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