JOHANNESBURG, July 16 (AFP) - The HIV/AIDS infection rate in South Africa's defence forces is "not more than 23 percent", Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said Tuesday.
"I am giving this to you as a factual figure," he told a press conference following media reports that 60 percent of the 70,000 troops were infected -- a claim he described as "ridiculous and dangerous".
The opposition Democratic Alliance said last week that the age and health profile of 53 percent of the troops did not meet requirements, and that seven out of every 10 deaths in the military were ascribed to medical reasons, as opposed to four in 1996.
Lekota said his figure was representative of the entire military and based on the screening of recent recruits and existing members.
Recruits who test HIV-positive are admitted because the constitution forbids discrimination on the grounds of disease, he said.
The United Nations earlier this month put the infection rate among adult South Africans overall at 20.1 percent.
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