The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has singled out President Thabo Mbeki and Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang for criticism in a hard-hitting report to the African Peer Review Mechanism lashing the government’s response to the Aids pandemic.
”While a number of important interventions have been implemented to respond to the HIV crisis, there has been a lack of leadership from the highest political level, especially from President Mbeki and the minister of health,” the TAC said in its submission on Friday.
This lack of leadership, ”which has been epitomised by expressions of support for pseudo-scientific views on the HIV epidemic”, has resulted in a lack of coordination at national level, said the Aids lobby group, launched in 1998.
It is estimated that between 4,5-million and 6,3-million people in South Africa are living with HIV, with young women and girls between the ages of 25 and 29 most at risk of infection. There is a prevalence rate of 23,3% among men aged 30 to 39.
Of particular concern is the infection of an estimated 400 000 more people a year — 1 000 a day on average, the TAC said.
About 500 000 South Africans are thought to have Aids, but are not on the highly active anti-retroviral therapy without which almost all of them are expected to die in the next three years. About 110 000 public-sector and 80 000 private-sector patients are receiving treatment.
”The HIV epidemic has resulted in a crisis of mortality. Life expectancy in South Africa has dropped from over 60 in 1996 to just over 50 in 2005,” the TAC said. About 300 000 people died of Aids last year, it added.
Quoting international treaties and legal documents, the TAC said a substantial duty rests on the state to combat the spread of the disease. However, there are problems with many of the existing prevention and treatment initiatives.
It is a sign of the strength of South Africa’s democracy that the country has responded with interventions ”inconsistent with the denialist position despite the president’s and health minister’s lack of leadership”.
”The president, minister of health and other government officials have on numerous occasions conducted themselves unfittingly in the response to the HIV epidemic, abused their power and obstructed the response to the epidemic.
”They continue to do so,” the TAC told the APRM.
It contended that some aspects of the HIV response have been successful despite the president and health minister, and not because of them.
”Their actions, or the actions of other officials acting under their instruction or perceived approval, have on frequent occasions been examples of anti-democratic behaviour and poor governance,” the TAC continued.
It went on to express concern at the perceived lack of oversight Parliament’s portfolio committee of health has over the Department of Health and its minister. — Sapa