The national strategic plan to combat Aids to 2011 met with business, government and civil society approval in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
”I regard [it] as a major landmark in our efforts as the people of South Africa to respond to HIV and Aids,” acting Health Minister Jeff Radebe told a conference on the presentation of the 2007 to 2011 plan.
He said a lot of progress had been made through implementing the 2000 to 2005 plan. A total of 245 670 people were now enrolled for antiretroviral treatment at 293 facilities countrywide.
Problems that remained were a shortage and uneven distribution of health workers. Reducing medicine prices also remained a ”critical area”.
The most enthusiastic response came from the Congress of South African Trade Unions.
”This plan is a radical challenge. As civil society we plan to support it and add to its call,” said the federation’s general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi.
”If supported by all of us it will be the boldest, most comprehensive strategic plan on Aids in the world,” he told business, civil society and government representatives.
He expressed concern about the cost of the plan, saying there was a ”huge funding gap” between the estimated cost and what the Treasury had allocated.
Business Unity South Africa president Patrice Motsepe was more muted in his response, saying it was important that business not only consider profits.
”It is so much more important that we succeed [in instilling] a sense of commitment and partnership. I want to agree with you that money can never be more important than the lives of our people.”
He called for anti-Aids messages to take into account the culture and background of their recipients.
Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said that in order to be effective, the fight against Aids needed to deal with poverty, underdevelopment and violence against women.
A comprehensive strategy to create and retain jobs was needed, she said in her speech.
”We know the linkage between gender-based violence and the spread of Aids. The indifference and non-action of so-called good men is unhelpful,” she said.
Mlambo-Ngcuka was also critical of those magistrates and judges she called apologists for abusers, and of police officers and health workers who humiliated victims.
The South African National Aids Council (Sanac), of which Mlambo-Ngcuka is chairperson, would be strengthened to become more effective at monitoring and evaluation of progress made in implementing the new plan.
The treasury had committed R14-billion to implement the plan and she asked that this be spent effectively.
Treatment Action Campaign general secretary Sipho Mthathi said: ”It’s one of the best responses to the epidemic in terms of a national framework.”
It ”seriously acknowledged” how the epidemic evolved as well as its socio-economic factors.
The health department’s head of HIV/Aids, Dr Nomonde Xundu, said the current draft had a ”great amount of consensus”.
Implementing it would cost about R4,6-billion in 2007/08.
She said consultation on the document would not be taken any further and a final draft would be presented to a restructured Sanac at month-end for possible adoption.
Among the aims of the new plan were halving new HIV infections by 2011 and reducing mother-to-child transmission to less than 5%. It also intended providing treatment, care and support to 80 % of HIV positive people by 2011.
Sub-Saharan Africa was home to about 65% of all people worldwide living with HIV, including 77% of all women with HIV. — Sapa