Johannesburg, 27 March 2002
GREETINGS
I am honoured to be here today to address you as representatives of the traditional leaders of the country on the important subject of HIV and AIDS.
We all agree that HIV and AIDS is a major challenge that seems to threaten our efforts to transform and develop our society from the inequities and underdevelopment we inherited from apartheid. It therefore requires all sectors of our society to rally together our strengths and capabilities in a common struggle to reverse the spread of HIV infection and contain the impact of AIDS in our society.
The National Traditional Leaders HIV/AIDS Forum is one of the very important structures in the fight against AIDS. I was honoured to be part the meeting where this forum was established in Cape Town last year. The establishment of the forum was a response to a call by the then Deputy President Thabo Mbeki in October 1998 for all sectors of society to take up the struggle against the spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. As you know, the Partnership also incorporates all sectors of our society including people with disabilities, people living with HIV and AIDS, organised labour and business sector.
Last month I had an opportunity to address the Eastern Cape Traditional leaders forum where we had a lengthy discussion nenkosi on various aspects of government response to HIV and AIDS. Your decision to establish provincial and local chapters of the Traditional Leaders HIV and AIDS Forums is a further demonstration of the commitment of traditional leaders to contribute in the fight against HIV and AIDS.
I must assure you that the government values the role of traditional leaders in our communities. That is why, when we established the South African National AIDS Council in January 2000, we made sure that traditional leaders were included as one of the sectors represented in that structure. There has also been a very constructive working relationship that has developed between the Department of Health and traditional leaders in the area of HIV and AIDS. We hope that this relationship will grow even further and extend to other health programmes. The effectiveness of most of the health services depends on participation of our communities and traditional leaders form a very important of our communities.
On Monday we were observing the World TB Day at Botshabelo in Bloemfontein. We called upon our communities to come up and be trained as volunteers to assist people with TB to take their tablets and complete the course. TB treatment takes a long time of up to 6-8 months. Many people do not finish their medication because they feel better within the first few months of treatment or they fail to tablets on an empty stomach because of insufficient food supply. They fall sick again with a much stronger strain of TB that is resistant to ordinary TB drugs.
It cost us more than R20 000 to treat patient with Multi Drug Resistant TB compared to R310 that we spend in treating TB at first attempt. Family and community support is therefore crucial in addressing this problem and ensue that TB patients are supported in taking their tablets.
Effective TB treatment plays a crucial role in improving and prolonging the lives of people with HIV and AIDS. Although TB is still the most common cause of death amongst people with AIDS, the reality is that TB can be cured even in the presence of HIV infection. We just need to help people to complete their medication.
I am sure that traditional leaders will continue to work with us as we integrate our HIV/TB/STI prevent, treatment, care and support programmes at a district level. This will enable us to respond in a comprehensive manner to these diseases that spread and fuel each other amongst our poor communities.
Traditional leaders have certain strengths that they bring to the fight against HIV and AIDS. You are well placed to convey AIDS messages especially in rural and most remote areas of our country. We know that you command great respect amongst your communities and you have direct access to the most impoverished people in this country.
This access means that as traditional leaders you have a potential to break the silence amongst our people and fight the stigma that is still associated with HIV and AIDS. Let us send a message of hope to our people. Let us tell them that just because you are HIV positive today, it does not mean that you will get AIDS tomorrow and die. Co-factors such as poverty, high levels of mainly childhood malnutrition, vitamin A and iodine deficiency as well as lack of other micronutrients have a major impact on how one progresses from HIV infection to full-blown AIDS.
We have to advise those infected and affected by HIV that by eating nutritious food, managing their stress, treating any infection promptly including sexually transmitted infections and using condoms, they can live longer and lead a healthy and productive life for many years.
Guided by the HIV/AIDS and STI Strategic Plan for South Africa, 2000-2005, our response to HIV and AIDS also focuses on the broader developmental issues that need to be addressed in South Africa. There is now a strong realisation within the international community of the role of developmental issues such as poverty, access to basic services and gender relationships in the transmission of HIV and the impact of AIDS on our society.
Government's approach to the HIV/AIDS epidemic is holistic in nature, encompassing interventions of prevention, treatment, care and support. One of the important programmes within this approach is to encourage people to go for voluntary HIV counselling and testing. This programme empowers people to make informed decisions on issues that have major impact on their lives including issues of nutrition, lifestyle and sexual behaviour.
We need to create caring environment for people who are infected and affected by HIV and AIDS. This will not only encourage people to know their HIV status, but it is also part of a moral regeneration of our society. The support of traditional leaders for HIV/AIDS programmes within their respective communities will ensure that we return to the principles of ubuntu and encourage people to care for those in need.
We need to return to our traditional practices where a child is not just a child of one family, but also a child of the community. Traditional leaders must lead the process of ensuring that children in distress are cared for within the community and are not forced by circumstances to move to institutionalised care.
Let us assist government in reaching out to our communities and encourage them to register for many services that are available within government. Let us ensure that people in our areas have birth certificates and identity documents so that they can access pension, foster care, child support grant and other services that government programmes that are provided to people in need of care. Combined with other poverty alleviation initiatives, these grants can make a difference in the lives of many families.
Our focus next month, which has been designated as a Health month, we will be to encourage communities to go back to basics and grow their food gardens. We want to encourage people to produce vegetables for their own consumption because we know the important role of proper nutrition and balanced diet in the overall health status of people.
We know that your support for this programme will go a long way in encourage our people, especially the poorest of the poor in rural areas to participate in this campaign to fight poverty and alleviate hunger.
Once again, I want to thank you for the initiative you have taken in joining hands with government and other sector in responding to the challenge of HIV and AIDS
Thank you