endorsement of the National Strategic Plan for HIV, AIDS and STI
2007-2011
30 April 2007
The newly constituted South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) was
launched at Emperor's Palace today officially bringing together government and
civil society in a renewed partnership against HIV and AIDS.
SANAC is chaired by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and includes
government representation at a ministerial level and highest leadership of the
business, labour and other sectors of civil society.
The meeting was attended by leaders from various sectors, Acting Health
Minister Jeff Radebe, Free State Premier Beatrice Marshoff, Correctional
Services Deputy Minister Loretta Jacobus and Health MECs.
The new SANAC considered and endorsed the new comprehensive National
Strategic Plan for HIV, AIDS and STI for 2007-2011.
The primary goal of the plan is to reduce the rate of new HIV infections and
mitigate the impact of AIDS on individuals, families and communities.
The plan aims to achieve 50% reduction rate of new infections by 2011 and
provide an appropriate package of treatment, care and support services to at
least 80% of people living with HIV and their families by 2011. The package of
care includes:
* counselling and testing services as an entry point
* healthy lifestyle interventions including nutritional support
* treatment of opportunistic infections
* antiretroviral therapy
The plan also includes a monitoring and evaluation component critical in
assessing progress and sharing research on the pandemic.
Deputy President Mlambo-Ngcuka thanked all stakeholders in the response to
HIV and AIDS for ensuring that the process of developing the Strategic Plan and
restructuring of SANAC is brought to the successful conclusion today.
She paid tribute to Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and thanked the
Department of Health for co-ordinating these two processes. "I urge provinces
to run with implementation of programmes. There should be no roll-over of
budgets allocated for HIV and AIDS. We should also address the challenge of
opportunistic infections such as tuberculosis (TB)," said Mlambo-Ngcuka.
Speaking on behalf of civil society organisations, Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu
said civil society is endorsing the plan and is ready to work on the
implementation. "We are excited with the extent to which we have been consulted
in the development of the plan," said Bogopane-Zulu.
In his keynote address, Acting Health Minister Jeff Radebe said: "We have
set up the necessary co-ordinating structure and we have all agreed on the
five-year Strategic Plan to address HIV and AIDS. It is now time to get down to
the real business of implementation.
"The National Strategic Plan includes ambitious targets to reverse the
course of HIV and AIDS over the next five years. These bold targets reflect our
commitment to combat HIV, AIDS and STIs and achieving them will require intense
collective effort by every one. Most importantly, reaching these targets
requires individual behavioural change and responsibility from all of us as the
people of South Africa."
Enquiries:
Sibani Mngadi
Cell: 082 772 0161
Issued by: Department of Health
30 April 2007
