Date: 25/03/2004
Source: Inkatha Freedom Party
Title: M Buthelezi: IFP/DA HIV/Aids focus, Good Hope Care Centre, Tembisa


Today, we have come to Tembisa to share our message of hope and change for a better South Africa. Mr Leon and I are also here to listen, to learn, and to understand. In Tembisa one discovers the energy, zest and indomitable spirit of the South African people in abundance. Even amidst the daily difficulties and challenges of township life with all its hardships and injustices, there is a real sense of a vibrant community and togethernessin Tembisa.

In projects like the Good Hope Care Centre, which Mr Leon and I have just visited, one finds a story of compassion and love that repeats itself in countless narratives of selfless dedication and duty throughout our land. Your example of caring for people living with HIV/Aids is both inspiring and a call to action. Where there is pain, you have brought healing. Where there is sorrow, you have brought joy. Where there is fear you have brought hope. I care. I have always cared. It is for this reason that I have inspired my Party to be the party that cares.

HIV/Aids is one of the five key issues that brought together the Coalition for Change between the IFP and the DA. We care about South Africa and could not stand by in impotence and complacency, while all our families and communities are suffering because of HIV/Aids, crime, unemployment, corruption and poverty. These are the major five areas in which the ANC government has failed its people and the areas which the next government must address. We need change and a government which relies on the leadership of the IFP and the DA, in order to ensure that the problems of HIV/Aids, crime, unemployment, corruption and poverty are solved.

These problems can, and must, be solved. We need to give treatment to those with HIV/Aids, not in one year, but now. The recent announcement that anti-retroviral drugs will be made available, is in great part just a promise, as the full roll-out will not take place for at least another year, when there really are no reasons why it should not have taken place years ago.

HIV/Aids is a national emergency. It is the deadliest enemy which has ever confronted our country and its people. It must be treated as a war. As such, the epidemic requires a proportional response. We must declare war on HIV/Aids now, the way the IFP has done in KwaZulu Natal. KwaZulu-Natal has one of the highest rates of infection in the country.

It is not possible to describe in words the pain one feels in seeing the destruction and despair that this disease has left in its wake. So many lives lost forever. Families broken. The haunting gaze of orphaned children. Grandparents trying to make their meagre pensions stretch that bit further.

I have said it before, and I will not stop saying it, until it is put right: HIV/Aids is the ANC Government's biggest public policy failure. It need not have been like this, for the government came to power on the crest of a wave of hope and the good wishes of the majority of South Africans.

As in all wars, the war of HIV/Aids requires moral leadership. Former American President FD Roosevelt once described the office of the president as a "bully pulpit." In a very special sense, I also believe, the occupant of the Presidency embodies the nation, and is personally invested with moral authority in a way no other citizen is. Tragically, on HIV/Aids, even some of my fellow leaders in government failed us. Instead of taking the lead, many leaders wasted precious time in the last Parliament, dwelling on obscure "revisionist" theories, questioning if HIV caused Aids. In the end, the office of the President announced that the Presidency would "withdraw" from the debate.

If HIV/Aids is a war, a government that withdraws from such a debate is a government that is in office, but not in power. This inertia resulted in a culture of denial about Aids, that left many politicians and public servants paralysed. Great damage was done and this damage still needs repairing.

This is not the time, however, to dwell on the government's shortcomings, but rather to look to the future, and the Coalition for Change's programme of measures to deal with the pandemic.

With the advent of the HIV/Aids pandemic, millions of people have been drawn into a new and appalling vicious cycle of sexual promiscuity, sexual violence, Aids and poverty. Poor people, as always, are more likely to be affected by HIV/Aids and be further impoverished by the pandemic's consequences. It is estimated that 4-6 million people, about 11 percent of the population, are already infected. Poverty, of course, is most deeply entrenched in the rural areas and in townships, like Tembisa.

So, our first priority must be to use any medicine made available by science to prevent the contracting and spreading of the disease. It simply is not a question of cost. We cannot afford not to provide them. When a nation is facing a war for its very survival, no cost is too great to bear. If we can afford to buy arms, we can afford life-saving drugs. If we were at war with an external enemy killing our people, nobody would question the cost of artillery shells and bombs. Cost is not even the issues as the price of anti-retroviral drugs has come down so substantially, that they are, in fact, affordable. We must narrow the gap between policy and implementation. Plans need to be drawn up immediately to roll out the test sites quickly and efficiently.

We need to embark upon 'in your face' high-profile campaigns, which makes HIV an issue for every South African. Government must take the lead by actively encouraging all South Africans to know their HIV status and provide accurate information about anti-retroviral treatment to every household.

HIV/Aids has surreptitiously inserted itself into an already fragile family environment, fragmented by apartheid and the migrant labour system. That is why the proposals adopted by the IFP and the Coalition for Change to care for those infected and affected by HIV/Aids, are grounded in the extended family and community.

In our Africa context, the extended family has always taken care of the most vulnerable. Our approach is about empowering communities and families with the tools of self-help and self-reliance. I believe that it is this understanding that underpins projects such as the Good Hope Care Centre.

No matter how well meaning, the National Aids Council cannot turn the tide against HIV/Aids. The fight against HIV/Aids requires the participation of every individual and community. My message to every person here today is "You can make a real difference". Allow me give you an example. I was recently sent a wonderful story recently published in the British Guardian newspaper called "Warrior Princess."*

The story is about a courageous lady who stands at the side of Zambia's Great North Road. Prostitutes ply their trade to truckers along this vast highway that links a handful of countries across Sub-Saharan Africa. Princess Zulu is HIV positive and a picture of glowing health. I will let the author pick up the story:

"The lady beams as a juggernaut pulls over to offer a lift. The driver thinks this is his lucky day as the voluptuous 28-year-old with a beautiful smile jumps into his cab. They chat for a few minutes and then the driver gives her the opening she has been waiting for: "So what do you do?" Expecting a sad story about how she got involved in prostitution, he hears the news that she is not here to seduce him for sex, but to educate him about HIV."

The author continues:

"She has made it her mission to spread accurate information about the virus, using her own status to personalise the message."

That is my appeal to all South Africans living with HIV/Aids. Please use your status to personalise the HIV/Aids prevention message. People of status must come out talking openly about HIV/Aids, especially those who are HIV positive. Today we are all either infected or, directly or indirectly, affected by HIV/Aids. There is no longer a divide which should isolate and penalise those who have contracted the disease. Our society as a whole has the disease, and even those who are not directly infected by it are, nonetheless, part of the same infection because we are all affected.

We also salute the example of Ms Sindiswa Moya, the 34-year-old patient at the Helen Joseph Hospital in Soweto, who appealed in an open letter to President Mbeki to speed up the supply of anti-retroviral drugs to public hospitals, so that patients like her can start treatment. Ms Moya, a South African profile in courage, has been hailed as a role model in her community, since her letter and photograph were published last month. I must be candid. The example of role models like Ms Moya, who are "people champions", will always speak more powerfully to their communities, than any speech a politician can deliver. We need more South Africans taking it upon themselves to become "people champions", as this is the real measure of true leadership and South Africa needs an army of role models like Sindiswa Moya, to break down the walls of stigma and prejudice: No more "them" and "us." HIV/Aids is a disease like any other, and must be treated as such. It affects all of us.

The time is ripe for change in the tide on how South Africa is governed. It is sad that a few weeks before elections, announcements are now made that anti-retroviral drugs are finally being distributed when, in fact, there are only a few pilot projects and the actual distribution will only take place in more than a year. In fact, what the South African people are getting is yet another promise on the eve of elections. South Africans are tired of promises which take the place of long overdue actions. There is no reason why the anti-retroviral drugs were not distributed years ago and are not made available today, not only in all public heath facilities, but also through all clinics in all major workplaces.

I believe that the political force that emerges as an alternative and counterweight to the ANC will be the one with the golden policy core with cogent proposals to address HIV/Aids, crime, unemployment and poverty. That is why we have developed a joint approach in our public policy making. Our policies to fight poverty and create jobs intersect with our proposals to combat HIV/Aids.

As you know, it was the Democratic Alliance in the Western Cape and the IFP in KwaZulu-Natal, who first provided bold political leadership by providing anti-retroviral drugs to prevent mother-to-child transmission. The nature of this technical co-operation between the two parties also cast into sharp focus the virtue of devolved decision-making, which is one of the key political principles underpinning the Coalition for Change. Federalism is preferable for the people over an overwhelming centralised government.

So, as you can see my friends, the purpose of the Coalition for Change is for action, not for association's sake. We are not in the business of selling promises, but ascribe to the culture and philosophy of action, action and action.

The message that Mr Leon and I jointly bring to the community of Tembisa today is that 'your interests are our interests' because we care. I have not started caring just today, or just a few months before elections. I have been in South Africa, going from door to door of all our communities for the past fifty years. For this reason, your dreams are my dreams. Your concerns are my concerns.

An ancient proverb speaks of how a mighty tempest may be whipped up even by the beating of a butterfly's wings in the forest. To those who fear the prospect of an unfettered, overwhelming, dominant ruling-party, I say not to be afraid, but be strong and of good courage. The butterfly's wings are beating. A new day is dawning. Together, hand in hand, we have begun a journey of Good Hope and we will not rest until it is complete. May God Almighty bless our journey and inspire us with the courage to complete it.

May God bless all of you.

May God bless South Africa.