One of the accused in the Jeppestown killings says he was not in the house during the bloody shoot-out in July, the Roodepoort Magistrate’s Court heard on Thursday. One of the defence attorneys, representing accused number six, told the court his client should be granted bail as he had an alibi.
A government decision to appeal a Durban High Court ruling forcing it to provide anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment to prisoners infected with HIV/Aids is ”a matter of principle”, the health department said on Friday. ”It is not about [government] refusing to give people treatment,” said director-general of the health department Thamsanqa Mseleku.
South Africa will ”never achieve redemption” for its HIV/Aids policies, the United Nations special envoy to Africa told the closing session of the International Aids Conference in Toronto on Friday. Stephen Lewis accused the government of expounding HIV/Aids theories ”more worthy of a lunatic fringe”.
If the South African government had rolled out anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs as fast as it could have, 75Â 000 lives could have been saved in 2005 alone, the International Aids Conference in Toronto, Canada, heard on Thursday. Parliament was also criticised for not holding the government accountable for expenditure on HIV/Aids.
Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang should resign over her lack of leadership on HIV/Aids, the Aids Law Project told a conference in Toronto, Canada, on Thursday. ”I believe our minister of health should resign,” head of the project Mark Heywood said to shouts of approval from a packed session room at the International Aids Conference.
South African Aids activists have slammed the International Aids Conference for being a show of celebrities and philanthropists, instead of people living with HIV/Aids who could raise the real issues they face. Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) members protested at the South African stand at the conference.
The safety and security of the country could be at risk if HIV/Aids among police in South Africa is not addressed and large numbers of them start dying, the International Aids Conference heard in Toronto on Tuesday. A preliminary report shows police work in an environment that increases their risk of HIV infection.
Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Tuesday night lashed out at the media for ”distortion” in reporting on South Africa’s exhibition of garlic, lemon and beetroot at the International Aids Conference in Toronto. ”We haven’t shocked the world; we have told the truth,” she said.
New technologies for HIV prevention could have a huge impact on the epidemic, possibly averting millions of new infections in the coming years, the International Aids Conference in Toronto heard on Tuesday. Gita Ramjee, of the HIV prevention research unit in South Africa, said there is a range of new and promising prevention technologies in advanced clinical trials.
There are 12-million children in sub-Saharan Africa who have lost one or both parents to Aids, and this number could grow to more than 16-million by 2010, according to a report released in Toronto, Canada, on Monday. An estimated 380 000 children under 15 died of Aids-related causes in 2005.