JEREMY LOVELL, Cape Town | Saturday 5.45pm
OPPOSITION parties have welcomed the removal from a draft law on equality a controversial clause that would have banned discrimination against people with HIV/Aids.br> The bill now includes a clause instructing the minister of justice to set up a committee to study and make recommendations on the matter within a year. It also does not prevent the courts from deciding what constitutes unfair discrimination.
”This is a very positive move,” New National Party spokeswoman Sheila Camerer told Reuters. ”The ANC was deeply divided on it, but in the end President Mbeki prevailed.”br> ”It is absolutely welcome,” Dene Smuts, spokeswoman for the official opposition Democratic Party, said. ”The implications of HIV/Aids must be considered very carefully.” br> However, she said, ”The issue has not gone away. It has been conveniently kicked into touch.” br> The Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Bill is one of four pieces of legislation that must, under the constitution, be signed into law by February 4, three years to the day after the constitution took effect. br> But the equality bill provoked a storm of outrage when it was published in November, proposing equality courts, reversing in some instances the presumption of innocence and banning the use of any term deemed to be racially derogatory. Insurance companies had lobbied hard to get the HIV/Aids clause dropped, arguing that it would have seriously damaged them by preventing them from including the increased insurance risk in their premiums or refusing cover at all. — Reuters