SA failing to fight Aids - DA

2005-04-08 15:27

Cape Town - The Democratic Alliance again criticised government on Friday for not doing enough to combat the HIV and Aids pandemic.

"This nation has to face up to the reality of this pandemic and it has to do it now," DA health spokesperson Dianne Kohler-Barnard said during debate in the national assembly on the health ministry's Budget vote.

"The time for prevarication has gone, the time of entertaining the Aids dissidents has passed," she said.

Three months ago six million South Africans were HIV-positive - one in eight - but 80% of them did not know their status.

Over 380&nbps;000 people died last year due to Aids-related diseases.

"Our future is bleak. It is expected that in 2010 we will have 900 000 people dying of full-blown Aids, and about 600 000 Aids-related deaths the following year."

With a few notable exceptions, including KwaZulu-Natal, provincial healthy departments had failed to spend the amounts specifically earmarked for dealing with HIV and Aids. Their performance had been dismal.

"Yes, (Finance) Minister (Trevor) Manuel has allocated R12.3 bn to the pandemic to be spent over the next three years, but let me ask this: if the existing infrastructures in provinces, such as the Eastern Cape, have to date proved themselves incapable of utilising the monies the good minister assigned to them last year to deal with the pandemic, what makes him believe that they will have the ability, or indeed the will, to utilise them during the 2005/2006 fiscal year?" she said.

Teachers are 'dying in droves' "This government should be ashamed that South Africa has been named as one of three countries lagging behind as the World Health Organisation attempts to reach its goal of delivering antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to three million people by the end of this year.

"Indeed, of the 20 countries that have the highest antiretroviral need, South Africa fared the worst. We are seen as a country without the political will to deal with the pandemic."

The daily number of Aids-related deaths in South Africa would not be reduced if government continued to fail to meet its own targets, and continued to shift the goalposts in a feeble attempt to cover its inefficiencies.

Without a massive and immediate upscale in the dissemination of ARVs the results would be catastrophic.

"In fact, they already are. Our teachers are dying in droves - and research shows that the numbers of children admitted to Grade I in schools has dropped dramatically," Kohler-Barnard said.

- SAPA