ANC: Stop using Aids for votes

2004-03-15 14:17

Johannesburg - Political parties should stop using HIV/Aids as a campaigning tool, the African National Congress in KwaZulu-Natal said on Monday.

Provincial spokesperson Mtholephi Mthimkhulu said in a media statement it was insensitive and inhumane to use the pandemic in political campaigning.

"It is therefore hypocritical for those who are masquerading as very concerned about HIV/Aids, just for the sake of scavenging votes, when they did nothing when they were presiding over the so-called governments prior to 1994," said Mthimkhulu.

He said: "What is usually not mentioned is that the first person with HIV was diagnosed in South Africa as early as 1983."

Mthimkhulu also said the apartheid regime and the then KwaZulu homeland government had not "initiated any programme to deal with HIV."

- SAPA