HIV and AIDS Conference
15 November 2007
Programme director
MECs
Mayors
Members of the Legislature
Councillors
Members of the Gauteng Council
Guests
Ladies and gentlemen
When he launched the partnership against HIV and AIDS in 1998, the then
Deputy President of South Africa, our current President Thabo Mbeki said: "HIV
and AIDS is among us. It is real. It is spreading."
We can only win against HIV and AIDS if we join hands to save our nation.
The power to defeat the spread of HIV and AIDS lies in our Partnership; as
youth, as women and men, as business people, as workers, as religious people,
as parents and teachers, as students, as healers, as farmers and farm workers,
at the unemployed and the professionals, as the rich and the poor, in fact, all
of us". Since that day, we have mobilised many resources from diverse
communities and social groupings to mount a broad-based and multi-sectoral
response against one of the major health challenges of our time.
The approach was adopted because of the recognition that no single sector,
ministry, department or organisation can single-handedly stop the spread of HIV
and alleviate the impact of AIDS. Every one of us has to make a contribution if
we are to be successful.
There has certainly been a growth in the number of organisations from
different sectors coming into partnership with us. Each sector has initiated
activities in the area of HIV and AIDS. These organisations have become a
backbone in alleviating the impact of AIDS and they are examples of best
practice.
The success of our strategies against this epidemic lies in the hands of all
these organisations and initiatives that are making a difference at a community
level and at places of employment.
But what is important is to keep remembering that the decisions we take as
individuals will ultimately determine whether we achieve the goal of an HIV
free generation. When all the information has been provided, it is an
individual's decision not to have sex, to be loyal to one partner or to use a
condom. These are decisions that each and every one of us has to take.
Next year we will observe ten years since the launch of the national
partnership against HIV and AIDS. Given the reality that there is still no cure
for HIV and AIDS we will have to rededicate ourselves to that pledge unveiled
by President in 1998 which says: "Everyday every night, wherever we are, we
shall let our families, friends and peers know that they can save themselves
and save the nation, by changing the way we live and how we love. We shall use
every opportunity openly to discuss the issue of AIDS."
We are beginning to see some promising signs, but it is still early to climb
on rooftops and declare that we have turned the tide. Surveys indicate that new
HIV infections are dropping among men under the age of 25 and women under
younger than 20 years. There are also indications that more people are willing
to come forward to get tested.
More than 435 000 people were tested at our voluntary counselling and
testing sites from 2004 up to August this year. Our programme to provide
anti-retroviral therapy to people with AIDS defining conditions is succeeding
in the prolonging the lives of our people. More than 90 000 people are now
accessing the therapy in Gauteng. Our aim is to increase this number to about
140 000 by the end of 2008.
While we must note these figures as representing important progress made, we
must at the same acknowledge that there is still much more work to bring this
epidemic under control. We must move to implement new protocols for the
prevention of mother to child transmission programme. The MEC for Health Brian
Hlongwa will in due course make an announcement in this regard.
Our national target as outlined in the revised strategic plan is to reduce
new HIV infections by half by 2011 and to provide appropriate support, care and
treatment to eight out of 10 people who test HIV positive. This has
implications that the conference must analyse and understand.
We have to achieve this in an environment characterised by spiralling
tuberculosis infections and complicated by the emergence of extreme drug
resistant Tuberculosis (TB). We will not attain these targets if we do not pay
equal attention to TB and devote equal energy to preventing new infections and
increasing cure rates.
For us in Gauteng our work is further complicated by increasing population
growth as a result of migration. This has implications for social factors
driving HIV infections such as unemployment, poverty, gender inequality and
transactional sex.
Our response therefore must be comprehensive. Our campaigns on HIV and AIDS
should not stand alone. They must be aligned to other campaigns that seek to
address disturbing social factors such as gender based violence and substance
abuse.
Our impact must be felt in local communities, in home-based care facilities,
in hospitals, schools and at the workplace. We will know that we have made a
difference when we see more of our sick colleagues return to work and resume
their productive lives. We will know that we have succeeded when the phenomenon
of child headed homes disappears and the innocence of young people is restored
allowing them to grow at their natural pace to realise their full potential.
Your discussions here in these two days, must help us move closer towards the
realisation of these outcomes. I wish you well and look forward to your
resolution which must help us achieve the objective of this conference's theme
which is: "Turn talk into action on AIDS."
Thank you.
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Gauteng Provincial Government
11 November 2007
