BDFM News Online
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
CAPE TOWN - Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala Rout-ledge has denied reports that she called on President Thabo Mbeki to take a public HIV test - but reiterated her belief that it was important for leaders to do so.
The UK-based Sunday Telegraph reported this weekend that Madlala Routledge had called on her colleagues, including Mbeki, to follow her lead in taking a public HIV test. The story, which was carried in local Sunday papers, prompted extensive local media coverage, with trade unions, opposition leaders and activists welcoming the remarks attributed to her.
Yesterday she said she had been misinterpre-ted.
"Although I encourage people to test so that they know their HIV status, I did not, as a matter of fact, call upon the president to conduct a public test as claimed by the reports," she said.
"The (Sunday Telegraph) journalist asked me if I thought it helped if people in leadership positions tested - to which I responded in the affirmative," she said, noting that she had taken her public HIV test as part of a Sunday Times campaign encouraging people to get tested.
"The main point I was making was to unite South Africans behind the campaign for testing, which forms part of the national plan on HIV, AIDS and sexually transmitted infections, and the comprehensive plan on HIV management, care and treatment adopted by the cabinet in December 2003," she said.
Madlala Routledge's interview with the newspaper followed a series of frank speeches and interviews in which she acknowledged government's failings in combating SA's HIV/AIDS epidemic, one of the world's worst.
More than 5,5-million South Africans are infected with the disease, a figure second only to India's 5,7-million, according to the United Nations.
She has also sought to mend relations with activists and emphasised the importance of scientific evidence to back up claims made for treatments for HIV, such as traditional remedies.
Government spokesman Themba Maseko said it was important for people to know their HIV status, but the decision to do so was a personal matter.
Asked whether government leaders had considered taking such tests, he said: "There has been no decision compelling leaders to test. It's still a matter of personal choice."
Mbeki's spokesman, Mukoni Ratshitanga, declined to be drawn on the issue. When asked whether the president would take a public HIV test, he said: "I don't know whether the president will make such a consideration."
The Democratic Alliance (DA) expressed scepticism about Madlala Routledge's assertion that she had been misunderstood, suggesting instead that she had been "persuaded" by her colleagues to issue her statement.
"Her backdown on the question of a public HIV test for the president indicates that Mbeki is still steadfastly refusing to play a constructive leadership role in the AIDS prevention campaign," said DA health spokesman Gareth Morgan.
Morgan said the fact remained that Mbeki was a brake on SA's AIDS-prevention programme because he refused to acknow-ledge that the disease was a major crisis for SA, "whether or not the deputy minister said these things to the journalist concerned".