ALIENS AND AIDS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA: THE MALAWI-SOUTH AFRICA DEBATE

Between 1988 and 1992, about 13,000 Malawian mine migrant workerswere repatriated from South Africa. The official reason givenwas that in the previous two years some 200 of them had testedHIV/AIDS positive. The South African Chamber of Mines requestedthe Malawi government to screen all the prospective migrantworkers from the country for HIV/AIDS before leaving for employmentin South Africa. The Malawi government refused, and the Chamberstopped recruiting labour from the country following a governmentban on the employment of foreigners with HIV/AIDS. Strong armtactics were employed in the repatriation of the Malawian workers,causing heated debates between the Chamber and the Malawi government,and the latter and its repatriated citizens. Within South Africaitself, opinion was divided. The Chamber wanted to keep itsMalawian workers for their skills, work discipline and lackof militancy. Some white conservative elements in the governmentdemanded the repatriation. They based their arguments on issuesof public health, emphasizing the risks the foreign workersposed to the local-especially the urban communities. A criticalanalysis of the issues involved, and the way the Malawians wererepatriated, suggests that HIV/AIDS was used as a smoke screen.The South African mining industry was going through a periodof crisis which necessitated massive retrenchment of workers,and especially foreigners. Desultory migrants were being replacedby career miners as part of the labour stabilization process.There was also a shift towards the recruitment of local workers.Malawi was no longer an important source of labour for the industry.