World Aids day to be celebrated at Piet Retief
This year's celebration will be in an effort to commemorate those who passed away and also showing diginity to those who are living HIV and AIDS.
On December 1 the whole country will be celebrating World Aids Day.
This is when we will be commemorating those who passed away, showing diginity to those who are living HIV&AIDS and in that the people will be encouraged by government and other stakeholders that are playing a significant role when it comes to addressing the issue of Aids.
Mpumalanga Mirror interacted with some citizens regarding the celebration of the day as they raised different views. Mr Mxolisi Malindzisa ( 34) said: “Well, it’s very important to celebrate the day so that young people can know how to protect themselves because according to my point of view, these days the youth are the ones that get infected with HIV/Aids as some of them want expensive things and they end up chasing after sugar daddies and forget that at the end, they will get sick.“
Another citizen, Ms Fikile Shungube (17) indicated that in order for the government to win this battle, activities that speaks about Aids must be conducted every month.
“Since December is close, you tune into your radio, television and read newspapers, you will find lot of articles that are teaching about HIV&AIDS, but after that, it”s quiet. Young people are no longer behaving well. If we look at the statistics or the level of young girls who are falling pregnant and end up dropping out school, its very shocking,’which means that they are not using condoms which also puts them at high risk of contracting HIV/Aids,“ she concluded.
The premier of the province, who’s also the chairperson of the Mpumalanga Aids Council, Mr David Mabuza, during the 3rd sitting of MPAC that was recently held at Kamhlushwa community hall under Nkomazi Local Municipality, emphased that all institutions must be hands on when it comes to fighting HIV/Aids as he was quoted saying: “Mpumalanga is in the second position, which means we have to work hard and it shows that this is not a joke, people are sick out there and we must help them.
We are not going to win this battle if we don’t unite, therefore government must get closer to the people and work together with the private sector and municipalities need to increase budgets for AIDS Counsellors so that the job can go smooth as they work very close to the people.“
This year, thenational celebrations will take place in Piet Retief in the Mkhondo local municipality that will be presided over by deputy president, Mr Kgalema Motlanthe and minister of health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi.
