Pretoria - Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza has instructed both municipalities and provincial government departments to increase their budgets for the Mpumalanga Provincial Aids Council (MPAC).
Speaking in his capacity as the chairperson of MPAC at its sitting held in KaMhlushwa in Nkomazi Municipality, Mabuza said the budget was not sufficient to effectively support the work of the provincial and the local Aids councils.
He said an increased budget would enable the councils to be able to do their work properly, including mobilising communities to take responsibility on HIV and Aids matters, such as not engaging in unsafe sex, knowing their status and giving support to those who are infected and affected by the virus.
“If you want to fight this kind of battle, you must arm yourself by having dedicated programmes that you must carry out. In order for you to achieve on those programmes, you need reasonable resources to systematically go all out and attack this scourge.
“Municipalities and provincial government departments should increase their budgets that deal with the fight against HIV and Aids, otherwise any other thing they would be doing is pointless because the nation is sick,” said Mabuza.
He said he wanted Mpumalanga to be counted amongst the provinces that have worked hard in fighting the HIV and Aids scourge.
Currently the province is the second worst hit, with Gert Sibande District Municipality having the most infections at 46%. The municipality only has a R1.3 million budget to deal with the disease.
Mabuza said the existing budgets catered for government alone and civil society, which was regarded as crucial in the battle, had no funds. He also challenged civil society to take an active approach instead of waiting for government.
“The intention of government is to teach communities at large to take responsibility. Currently, I do not see the ‘working together’ between government and civil society in getting the nation in our province to focus on the fight against HIV and Aids.
“If we are faced in one direction as a province, we will definitely succeed. We can only win this war if as a province we have the right attitude. As people have more confidence in civil society. We must therefore ensure that we get this sector to participate actively,” said Mabuza.
He acknowledged the progress made by the council in the fight against HIV and Aids, saying that the communities in the province had entered a stage where they could “talk and sing” about the matters related to HIV and Aids.
During the sitting, the delegates were also educated by young HIV and Aids ambassadors on taking anti-retroviral drugs. – SAnews.gov.za
