Johannesburg | Monday
DEMOCRATIC Alliance leader Tony Leon said on Monday that he has lodged a formal request with the Medical Research Council to secure its report on Aids-related deaths.
“I have also requested the findings of a study on the economic impact of HIV/Aids from the Department of Finance,” Leon said in a prepared speech.
He said thousands of South Africans are dying from the disease yet the government had suppressed information on the death rate.
“The Democratic Alliance finds it unacceptable that the government does not appear to be using the information it has commissioned, while at the same time keeping it from NGOs and the general public who could use it in the battle against HIV/Aids.”
The MRC is at the centre of a row over its failure to release its report on Aids mortality, while on Friday its president Malegapuru Makgoba did not attend parliamentary hearings on the impact of HIV/Aids. Makgoba said urgent and unforeseen circumstances had prevented him from attending the hearings.
The report, which apparently confirms that Aids is the major cause of death in South Africa, could prove embarrassing for President Thabo Mbeki, who urged a rethink on social spending on the grounds that the impact of the disease had been exaggerated.
The MRC originally said it hoped to release the document last week, then changed its mind, saying it needed to brief policy-makers first.
Leon said statistics leaked from the unreleased report indicated that while HIV/Aids accounted for less than 10% of adult deaths in 1995, the figure rocketed to 40% last year. “Most disturbing of all is that deaths of children under five years is expected to triple by 2010.” – Sapa
Virtual memorial:
the Aids dead in 2000
The Actuarial Society of SA – Five million South Africans to die over 10 years
ZA*NOW:
Mbeki on Aids: head in sand, foot in mouth September 10, 2001