Briefing the media after its meeting in Pretoria yesterday, spokesperson Joel Netshitenzhe said the Department of Health was finalising the documentation for submission to Cabinet, after "in loco" inspection in some of the provinces.
According to him, there were between two and three provinces, which the team tasked to develop the operational plan, which had merely interacted with officials and did not examine some of the institutions.
However, he said the team had gone back there some ten days ago to inspect some of the institutions.
"And so urgent does Cabinet treat this matter that it feels if that were to happen the submission of the report in the next few days then the Cabinet Secretariat would consider convening a special Cabinet meeting to consider the report before the next ordinary meeting of Cabinet which would be around the fifth of November".
The documentation relates to information compiled by a task team Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang appointed over a month ago, to help the health department urgently develop an ARV operational plan by the end of September.
This at the request of Cabinet in August.
The 14-member team was assisted by a team of experts from the Clinton Foundation AIDS Initiative, established by former US President Bill Clinton and led by Ira Magaziner.
It is anticipated that between 2003 and 2010, the provision of the drugs is likely to save the lives of more than 1,7-million people living with HIV/Aids in the country.
Earlier this month, however, the team was asked to improve the report as Cabinet had raised some issues regarding the report to make sure that it received "a good quality plan on which to take practical decisions".
The issues were around the monitoring of people living with HIV/Aids, human resources and provincial business plans, among others.
Meanwhile, Cabinet emphasised that there was no policy in government that excluded individuals from being accepted into the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) merely on the basis of their HIV status.
Earlier this month, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota had reportedly said the SANDF did not recruit people who were living with the disease. Netshitenzhe said Lekota's words might have been "distorted".
He said the mandate of the SANDF as well as the rigour of preparation in the military section of the force would require that the recruits were assessed on the basis of various criteria.
He explained this would include height, weight, vision, state of one's eyes, hearing, as well as serological sampling including hepatitis and HIV, "and each case is treated on its own merit".
"There is no principled policy to exclude people merely on their HIV status. And further, the SANDF does not terminate the service of those who have been identified as being HIV positive".
He said rather, the defence offered recruits living with HIV/Aidscounseling and treatment. – BuaNews.
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