OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday
SOUTH Africa’s opposition Democratic Alliance has kicked off its campaign for the December local elections with a promise to provide free anti-Aids drugs in wards its members win.
DA leader Tony Leon told a 500-strong crowd in Soweto, south of Johannesburg, the party would give anti-retrovirals to HIV-positive pregnant women to prevent transmission of the virus to their babies.
Leon also promised to hand out the drugs to women who have been raped to stop them sero-converting.
“It is a small offer of hope, next to the magnitude of HIV/Aids. But it is better than wasting time with small talk and silent despair,” he said in a reference to President Thabo Mbeki’s handling off the Aids crisis.
The president and Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang have refused to make anti-retrovirals freely available, saying that the country – which has 4.2 million people with HIV or Aids – simply could not afford it.
Mbeki has also questioned the efficacy of the mainstream anti-retroviral AZT, most recently in a bitter exchange of letters with Leon.
The DA said its campaign for the municipal elections was based on fighting crime, poverty and HIV/Aids.
Leon charged that the ruling African National Congress under Mbeki’s leadership was striving to end world poverty, find an African cure for Aids and broker peace abroad, but not doing enough at home.
“I admire, support and commend these efforts. But I also believe that charity begins at home,” he said.
As Mbeki did two weeks ago when he launched the ANC’s election manifesto, Leon promised free basic services for the poorest of South Africa’s poor.
The Democratic Alliance was formed four months ago when Leon’s Democratic Party merged with the New National Party, which ruled under apartheid.
The parties respectively won 9.5 and 6.7% of the vote in 1999 general elections – compared to the ANC’s 66% – and are looking to win more black support in the December poll. – AFP