Moyiga Nduru
JOHANNESBURG, Oct 29 2006 (IPS) – A few minutes before the deputy president of South Africa, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, stepped into the conference hall, a participant burst into song. Soon she was joined by her colleagues in welcoming the guest of honour.
Clapping hands, ululating, whistling, and swaying to and fro, more than 350 delegates from about 80 organisations across South Africa had gathered in Johannesburg to forge a united front against HIV/AIDS.
The two-day gathering, which ended Saturday, was organised by the South African Council of Churches, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the South African National NGO Coalition and the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) amongst others. (NGO stands for non-governmental organisation.)
We should work together to defeat this virus. That s how we defeated apartheid. We pooled all our resources and focused on defeating apartheid, Mlambo-Ngcuka told participants. The government cannot win this war alone. All of us must work together to fight this pandemic.
More than 5.5 million South Africans are living with the virus, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, which puts adult HIV prevalence in the country at 18.8 percent.
It s a ruthless enemy. An enemy that kills 1,000 people a day (in South Africa) must be fought, said Willy Madisha, the president of COSATU.
In a paper presented at the conference, What difference can social mobilisation make in response to the HIV and AIDS pandemic? , Olive Shisana of South Africa s Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) said 350,000 people would get infected this year. Two million did not know that they were HIV-positive, while 570,000 had already developed full-blown AIDS. In addition, more than 2.5 million children had been orphaned by AIDS.
The Cape Town-based HSRC is a non-profit organisation partially funded by government.
Our country is in pain. We are all in pain We are losing children, mothers, fathers and teachers, said Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, deputy minister of health. If we work together we can conquer the pandemic.
Noted Madisha, We must concentrate on fighting the enemy (AIDS). We cannot afford to waste our energy fighting each other. We should dedicate our energy to fighting the enemy.
But, working together has not been easy. The TAC and the Department of Health, for instance, have been at odds for years.
Angered by Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang s talk of using potatoes, beetroot and garlic to boost the immune systems of people living with HIV/AIDS, the TAC has called on her to step down. The group claims South Africans are being misguided into believing that these foods present a viable alternative to anti-retroviral therapy.
In September, the TAC together with 80 international AIDS activists and leading academics wrote to President Thabo Mbeki demanding that Tshabalala-Msimang be sacked. The signatories included David Baltimore, a Nobel Peace Prize Winner, and Robert Gallo, who co-discovered HIV as the cause of AIDS. They described the health minister s HIV/AIDS policy as ineffective and immoral .
The letter came after the South African stand at the Sixteenth International AIDS Conference held in Toronto, Canada, in August featured a display of potatoes, beetroot and garlic.
The current state of affairs has also alarmed the business community. Conflict must end. Business needs leadership and clear laws around HIV and AIDS, Brad Mears, chief executive officer of the South African Business Coalition on HIV and AIDS, told the gathering.
Mbeki has now appointed Mlambo-Ngcuka to chair the revived National AIDS Council to lead the fight against the pandemic.
Tshabalala-Msimang did not attend the gathering in Johannesburg; there was no explanation for her absence.
But her deputy, Madlala-Routledge, received deafening applause when she said that the universally acclaimed ABC anti-AIDS strategy Abstain, Be faithful, use a Condom was not working. She also delighted delegates when she admitted that government had made some progress against HIV/AIDS, but that a new strategy was needed to fight the virus.
A senior medical doctor who has been pushing for new approaches to combat HIV/AIDS, told IPS: For the first time in ten years, I have smile on my face.
In fact, all participants seemed delighted. I think there s a shift in government policy, Tsepo Matubatuba, coordinator of the Johannesburg-based HIV and AIDS office for the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, told IPS.
Noted COSATU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, We were looking at each other and saying the days of marching against the government are over. We seem to be united around one message of fighting the virus.
But he also said that the option of mass action remained on the table. We are not going to abandon the streets completely. We would focus on providing greater access to prevention, treatment, care and support, Vavi stated.
The TAC appeared to share these sentiments. The days of toyi-toyi (a protest dance used during apartheid) and marching are not yet over. We have a huge challenge ahead of us. You cannot build unity overnight, said Sipho Mthathi, general secretary of the campaign a Cape Town-based pressure group.
