Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday October 30, 2001
Brendan Boyle

Bypassing the reservations of President Thabo Mbeki, who has yet to publicly acknowledge that HIV causes AIDS or that AIDS kills more South Africans than anything else, Manuel said the disease was taking an increasing toll of the living standards of the poor and vulnerable.

He said he would increase the budget for AIDS-related support programmes fourfold over the next 3 years.

"The rising burden of communicable diseases intensifies our development challenge and affects the potential growth of the South African economy," he said in a budget policy statement to parliament.

Mbeki told legislators last week that the drugs used to treat HIV/AIDS were as dangerous as the disease itself, but Manuel responded to public pressure for action on an epidemic that is expected to kill up to 7 million South Africans by 2010.

He allocated an additional 20.3 million rand ($2.16 million) to provinces testing the use of nevirapine to limit the spread of the HIV from mother to child and mapped out rising expenditures on awareness programmes and home care for the terminally ill.

The state-funded Medical Research Council (MRC) reported earlier this month that one third of all deaths this year were likely to be due to AIDS-related illnesses and that this figure would rise to 66% by 2010.

Though Mbeki has claimed repeatedly this year that crime and accidents together are the primary cause of death in South Africa, the MRC estimated that 195,000 people would die of AIDS in 2001--more than double the government's estimate of 65,000 to 80,000 deaths by accident and violence in 2000.

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A coalition of non-government groups lobbying for people living with HIV and AIDS has launched court action in a bid to compel the government to provide nevirapine to women in labour, and the state is being sued in the name of an HIV-positive baby for failing to offer protection during birth.

Manuel said he would increase spending on the Health Ministry's integrated strategy on HIV/AIDS, which includes education and programmes to promote home care, from 125 million rand in the current financial year to 546 million rand in fiscal 2004/05.

In one of the first official estimates of the true impact of the disease on the health system, the National Treasury said treatment of AIDS-related illnesses would cost nearly 4 billion rand in the current financial year.

Addressing crime, which economists cite as a key obstacle to immigration and foreign investment, Manuel said he would fund an additional 6,000 policemen over the next 3 years and inject more funding into the country's creaky courts.

"Raising spending capacity and improving...quality in the justice system are of critical concern, and further efforts to strengthen the sector will enhance social and economic stability and reduce the vulnerability of the poor," he said.

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