M Tshabalala-Msimang: Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital

28 March 2006

It is a great pleasure for me to join you today. This is a special day where
we honour Mr Raymond Ackerman. As you know, Mr Ackerman donated R4 million to
the Children’s Hospital as part of his 75th birthday celebration. The renowned
hospital in the world.

I am told that this sizeable donation is the largest contribution ever
received from a single individual by the Children’s Hospital Trust. This is a
perfect gift as this hospital celebrates its 50th birthday this year.

Mr Ackerman, we are aware of your social responsibility efforts. Your
contribution actualises the principles of “UBUNTU” and the Batho Pele, which
are often easier said than done. It is therefore not surprising that your name
appeared in the Top 100 Great South Africans in 2004.

We are pleased as the Department of Health of the good relationship that we
have with Pick ‘n Pay in particular. As a build-up to the 2003 World AIDS Day,
the department collaborated with Pick ‘n Pay chain stores to collect donations
from across the country in support of our Caring Together campaign.

These donations were collected and warehoused through the Pick ‘n Pay
network and distributed to thousands of people in need of care. We need to
promote these types of collaborations and work together in addressing various
social challenges facing our communities.

I would also like to express my appreciation for a positive approach taken
by Pick 'n Pay Hypermarket Pharmacies in relation to the government’s efforts
to increase access to affordable medicines in the country. This was at the time
when other parties in the retail pharmacy industry were taking government to
court over the regulations limiting a dispensing fee that can be charged on
medicines.

Pick 'n Pay Hypermarket Pharmacies were some of the pharmacies that
supported the principle of reducing the cost of medicines and complied with the
dispensing fee that was set by Government at the time.

We hope that this spirit will continue to flourish as we seek to comply with
the ruling of the Constitutional Court on the matter. We have announced the new
draft dispensing fee structure. We would like to encourage all role-players and
the public in general to comment on these proposals within the specified period
of a month after the publication of the regulations in the Government
Gazette.

We have to ensure that consumers in particular are able to express their
views with regard these draft fees and the general principle of making
medicines more affordable in the country. Comments should not be limited to
industry players only, but it should also involve the broader population of our
country that stands to benefit from these interventions.

We are making all these interventions to improve the health of our
population with special focus on the health needs of women, the children,
people with disability and the elderly. We are highlighting the need to change
today's world reality where many women die during pregnancy or as a result of
delivery each year and where millions of children die before celebrating their
fifth birthday.

Through our healthy lifestyles programme, we want to ensure that every
pregnancy and delivery is a very safe experience. We are emphasising the need
to care for the health of babies before and after birth to ensure that they
have a healthy start to life. We must create more awareness around dangers of
alcohol and tobacco abuse during pregnancy.

The health of women and children is an important indicator in our effort to
meet the Millennium Development Goals relating to health. These goals include
addressing the challenges of hunger and lack of access to safe water, reducing
maternal and child mortality and begin to reverse the incidence of infectious
diseases like HIV and AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria by 2015.

There are positive indications with regard to infant mortality and mortality
of children under five years. The proportion of births that were attended to by
either a nurse or doctor has increased from 84% in 1998 to 92% in 2003. This
can be attributed to the increased access to health services both in terms of
availability of health facilities in various communities and free health
services for pregnant and lactating women as well as children under the age of
six.

The positive developments around maternal and child health indicates that we
are on the correct path and we need to sustain our efforts to further improve
the lives of women and children in our country.

We are grateful to have committed partners like the Red Cross Children’s
Hospital, whose passion and commitment to child survival are immeasurable. The
multi-disciplinary specialised and comprehensive health services that are
offered here, makes the Red Cross Children’s Hospital to not only be a national
asset, but a source of hope for many children in the African continent. A
comprehensive range of specialist paediatric health services are offered to
children from all over Africa.

We as the Department of Health are committed to building a healthy nation.
Therefore we acknowledge and appreciate the efforts by all our partners in
improving health care for our children.

Let us work together to protect the future of our country by optimising the
growth and development of our children.

Thank you.

Issued by: Department of Health
28 March 2006