Programme director
WHO/AFRO Regional Director Dr Louis Gomez Sambo
WHO country representative Dr Stella Anyangwe and the delegation
Senior officials from the Department of Health
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

It is a great honour for me to host you tonight in this dinner as part of your visit to our country. For me, your visit could not have come at a better time given the responsibility that have just been placed on me as our country's Minister of Health.

With your role as WHO/AFRO regional director I am certainly looking forward to your support in performing my tasks especially in those areas that require regional co-operation and collaboration. Health is certainly an area that speaks directly to the welfare of the millions of our people. It drives economies. It determines what our future is going to be like.

Being one of the continents still faced by serious development difficulties, I have no doubt in my mind that you will agree that a lot still needs to be done in this area. Part of the problems that we are dealing with are related to conflicts that have been visited upon the millions of our people over the years amongst others by people masquerading as leaders. These conflicts have undoubtedly plunged our continent in a serious problem of infrastructure destruction unfortunately accompanied by disease, injuries and trauma.

Secondly and perhaps most importantly, the health infrastructure like others sectors of our lives such as education is recovering from years of under investment by governments keen on investing more in their defence forces to fight meaningless wars and killing innocent people.

The task therefore for all of us, is to start a journey that will ensure that this unfortunate situation is reversed. Regional director, this task will take years and it requires vision, dedication and support. In you I know we have exactly that kind of leadership. Please be assured of our support and dedication in doing this work.

We however are dependent on your own support in delivering on the health expectations of the millions of our people at a country level. In our meeting this afternoon, I was left with no doubt as to your ability and readiness to deliver in this regard.

One of the biggest problems that our public health systems are faced have to do with poor data collection which impacts negatively on our ability to plan as governments. What this requires is for all of us to work closely together through exchange of information on best practices and where possible exchange programmes given the disparities between and among countries. I was happy to hear in our meeting that this is the problem that you have also identified as being key in addressing the public health problems confronting us.

Programme director, human resources for health is yet another area that continues to plague our country's health systems. This of course can be attributed to a variety of factors ranging from the free movement of skills globally but also the inability of our institutions to produce enough as well as the increasing burden of diseases facing us.

One is however encouraged by work that has begun regarding correcting this situation. The fact that there are agreements in place discouraging sister countries from poaching human resources from countries facing the same problems in the continent is encouraging. This display of solidarity is indeed indicative of the commitment of countries not to further deplete the limited resources of individual countries in the quest to solve their own problems. This kind of spirit needs to be encouraged.

Communicable and non communicable diseases including injuries and trauma continue to place an ever increasing burden of disease on the health systems of our countries. As we would all know, the combined problem of HIV and AIDS and tuberculosis is one such area that continues to absorb our limited financial resources in particular.

At a country level, I am happy to inform the regional director of work we are doing as guided by the National Strategic Plan on HIV and AIDS and tuberculosis (TB) despite the many problems that we continue to encounter on the way. One such problem is directly related to the recent advent of drug resistant TB, a strain of TB only recently discovered especially in the Tugela Ferry district.

We were quite encouraged by the support that we received from your organisation WHO in terms of sharpening our response. As I stand here tonight I have no doubt that your organisation will continue to give such critical support.

Malaria is an example of a non-communicable disease that continues to claim the lives of our people. Regional director, you will already know by now that as a country we are collaborating with sister countries in the region especially those we are sharing borders with (Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Mozambique) to address this problem.

We have no intention of stopping these kinds of collaboration. As this year's theme to commemorate the World Malaria day suggests, malaria is a disease without borders and it therefore becomes crucial to form partnerships in combating it.

Regional director, in general we are very happy to have in our country your representative in the person of Dr Stella Anyangwe. We will continue to interact with your office in all the areas that requires us to do so. This is in line with the political commitments we made shortly after 1994 to work closely together with all of the countries in the continent to confront common problems facing our people.

Please do enjoy your stay in our country. I have no doubt in my mind that by the time you leave our shores this coming Thursday you will achieved a lot as far as your mission to South Africa is concerned. Enjoy the beauty of our country and its people. Enjoy the singing and dance of its people and I know in you we have a good ambassador for our country.

Thank you very much.