Government to increase budget for Aids council
“Municipalities and provincial government departments should increase their Aids budgets because the nation is sick."
KAMHLUSHWA – The premier Mr David Mabuza has instructed both municipalities and provincial government departments to increase their budgets for the Mpumalanga Provincial Aids Council (MPAC) in an effort to maximise impact in the fight against HIV/Aids.
Speaking in his capacity as the chairperson of MPAC at its sitting on Friday at the Nkomazi Municipality, Mabuza said the budgets were not sufficient to effectively support the work of the provincial and local aids councils.
He explained that an increased budget would enable the councils to mobilise communities properly to take responsibility for matters of HIV/Aids such as not engaging on 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 a battle, you must arm yourself by executing dedicated programmes. In order to make these programmes successful you need the proper resources to address this scourge.
“Municipalities and provincial government departments should increase their Aids budgets because the nation is sick.
“I am not happy with the current budgets. We have to be aggressive in our approach by doing certain things in an extraordinary way in order to emerge victorious from this war,” said Mabuza.
Mabuza said he wanted Mpumalanga to be counted among the provinces that have worked hard in fighting the scourge. Currently the province is the second worst hit with Gert Sibande District Municipality having the most infections at 46 per cent with a budget of only R1,3 million.
He explained that existing budgets catered for government alone and although civil society – crucial in this battle – had no funds it should still actively participate instead of waiting for government.
He subsequently demanded integrated plans to determine the activities of both civil society and 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 people in our province to focus in the fight against HIV/Aids.
“If we unite as a province we will definitely succeed. We can only win this war if we have the right attitude. As people have more confidence in civil society, we have to ensure that we get this sector to participate actively,” said Mabuza.
Mabuza added he was nevertheless very encouraged by the progress in councils’ approach to the pandemic. He said communities in the province had entered a stage where they could “talk and sing” about Aids-related matters.
