The Business Excellence Award for Best Workplace Program was presented to Ben Magara, CEO of Anglo Coal South Africa at an awards dinner in Washington D.C. The event was attended by global health leaders including senior Obama administration officials and representatives from UNAIDS, The World Health organization (WHO) and The Global Fund.

HIV and AIDS is having a major impact on millions of lives in Southern Africa and Anglo Coal estimates that some 1,300 of its 9,300 employees in the region are currently infected with HIV. This award has been given in recognition of the ground-breaking work the company does in South Africa with its comprehensive HIV/AIDS response for both employees and their families.

All Anglo Coal employees are actively encouraged to test annually, with senior members of the management team taking HIV tests in public to lead by example. Employees who test positive can enroll in a free HIV management program offering care, support and treatment. As a result of this response, the company has seen mass employee engagement on this issue and 94% of permanent workers have been HIV tested since the program began. Anglo Coal expects to reduce the number of new infections to half what they were in 2005 by the end of 2009.

Anglo American was the first large company in South Africa to offer free anti-retroviral treatment to all employees back in 2002. There are currently 7,300 employees enrolled in the HIV disease management program across all Group companies in South Africa.