3 May 2000
Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma reiterated President Mbeki and the government's commitment to fighting the spread of HIV/Aids in South Africa.
The Minister was addressing a press briefing on Wednesday during her current visit to Geneva to attend a United Nations Preparatory Committee meeting for the world conference against racism, xenophobia, racial discrimination and related intolerance, schedu led for 2001 in South Africa.
The Minister indicated that in South Africa the issue of HIV/Aids had shifted from being simply a public health sector matter into an important and broad national issue involving all sectors of the population.
In this regard, she outlined the steps which the government had undertaken in its unflinching efforts to fight the spread of the virus.
This included:
1) the establishment of an inter-ministerial committee led by then-deputy president Thabo Mbeki and now by current deputy-president Jacob Zuma
2) the establishment of the SA National Aids Council, led by Zuma
3) formation of broad based partnerships between the government on the one hand and youth, workers, business, women and on the other hand people living with HIV/Aids.
4) the mobilisation of financial resources for research institutions to develop vaccines against the scourge of the virus.
5) public awareness programmes that included messages on safe sex; advocacy of abstention of the youth; non-discrimination against HIV/Aids sufferers and the treatment of opportunistic diseases that could create a climate for the virus to flourish.
Dlamini-Zuma reiterated the unequivocal commitment of Mbeki and the government to these programmes.
What Mbeki was asking in relation to this matter was why there existed a different evolution of the disease in Africa in comparison to developed countries of the north.
In Africa the virus was found among heterosexuals and rapidly progressed to full blown Aids status, thus cutting off the lifespan of millions of people.
On the contrary, in developed countries, the virus was found mainly among specific sectors and did not necessary progress towards full blown Aids status.
President Mbeki, said the Minister, was asking whether conditions of abject poverty, malnutrition and lack of health facilities, which have a negative impact on the immune system of individuals, did not create the climate in which HIV could rapidly progres s towards full blown Aids status.
Mbeki is therefore calling on the scientific community to make sure that as they formulate and refine their strategies towards development of vaccines for combating the spread of HIV/Aids, they should take into account the differences in the evolution of t he disease and conditions of poverty that are prevalent in Africa, into account.
In this regard, the Minister indicated the government had established a panel of international scientists, from across the scientific spectrum, to debate the matter and ensure everyone's views on the issue was heard.
Thus the president, said the Minister, was not departing from what was scientifically known since he had not endorsed the so-called dissidents' view.
However, Mbeki reserved the right to hear all sides of the debate whilst continuing to mobilise the government and the public against the spread of HIV/Aids.