Mail & Guardian Online - August 4, 2007
Mail & Guardian reporter

Four sources within government and civil society confirmed independently that Xundu was on her way out. Contacted this week, Xundu did not comment and said to ask the health department. Spokesman Sibani Mngadi confirmed that Xundu had resigned but had withdrawn her letter. He would not comment on the reasons.

Xundu, a doctor by profession, has driven the adoption of the national strategic plan for HIV/Aids. The plan, adopted earlier this year, was heralded as a watershed. It was drawn up by government and civil society representatives after years of inaction and turmoil. It set the goal of halving the incidence of HIV by 2011; ensuring full coverage for the prevention of mother to child infection; instituting a massive testing campaign; and providing treatment and support for 80% of infected individuals and affected families.

Successful implementation will be a huge task and there are questions over whether Xundu can cope with a tiny infrastructure. In addition, she works at the level of a chief director. To ensure that she can work across departments, her post, say civil society leaders, should ideally be pegged at the level of a director-general or a deputy director-general. Talks between Mseleku and Xundu will pivot on this question and the outcome, it seems, will determine whether she leaves or stays. A chief director has little authority with other departments.

The Aids plan requires a number of departments to work together. These include the deputy presidency, the social development department as well as the treasury. The office of the individual charged with managing the Aids plan also needs to be properly resourced, say experts in the field. Xundu works as little more than a woman with a laptop.

Since Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang returned to the department, she has been keen to reassert her authority over her turf. The most visible example has been her visit to Frere Hospital in the Eastern Cape and her denial the view of her deputy, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, who declared infant mortality statistics a crisis after a visit to the hospital. President Thabo Mbeki subsequently penned a seven page Letter From the President denying the findings of the Daily Dispatch investigation into infant mortality.

Never lily-livered, the health minister has reportedly made her unhappiness at being sidelined felt in the build-up to the adoption of the Aids plan. It was done while she was on leave after a liver transplant.

Since her return, the newly constituted South African National Aids Council has not met, amid signs that the fractures between government and civil society are reopening.

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