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Elite 'must pressure' govt
01/02/2006 22:00 - (SA)
Pretoria - Only when the privileged, including the black middle class, engaged leaders and drove them to implement commitments they had made regarding HIV/Aids programmes, would the nation be set to tackle the epidemic.
This was according to Aids activist Zackie Achmat, who delivered a lecture on Wednesday at the Human Sciences Research Council.
"I believe there should be a black middle class and that we have a duty to use our power to the betterment of society. If we don't use that power then we are unjust."
He also said education was a critical factor in combating Aids, surpassing the factors of race, inequality, class and gender issues.
"Education is critical for young women, especially to gain socio-economic independence and to make informed choices about reproductive health."
At the height of the apartheid government's Aids programme, it had spent R20m a year and supplied a million condoms, which he juxtaposed with the initial R70m and 315 million male condoms and just under 5 million female condoms supplied by the present government.
Unequal resources spent on education were a major factor of why the increased efforts of the new government had failed to curb the epidemic.
Achmat said: "We can fill up every submarine that Ronnie Kasrils has bought with condoms. We can take all the planes bought from the Swedes that contributed to corrupting Jacob Zuma and fill them up with condoms and anti-retrovirals and drop them on people's heads and we would not overcome Aids."
Achmat added that healthy eating along with the use of ARVs was important in slowing the progress of the virus.
"I shall not let anyone stigmatise my vegetables," Achmat said.
- SAPA
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