Sunday Times, South Africa - September 24, 2000
Laurice Taitz
Dr Eddie Mhlanga, the director of maternal and child health in the Department of Health, said: "We, as a department, need to come out with a message that says HIV causes AIDS and AIDS kills."
His statements came after a week in which President Thabo Mbeki was forced to admit in Parliament that he had caused confusion about the government's position on HIV and AIDS by casting doubt on the causes of the epidemic and the strategies to fight it.
However, Mbeki persisted with his pro-dissident view, saying there is not necessarily a link between the Human Immunodeficiency Virus and the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
Pressure has been mounting on the government to take an unambiguous stand .
This week the Minister of Health, Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, continued to evade questions on this issue, even going so far as to shy away from public appearances. On Friday she failed to turn up for an official visit to a Johannesburg brothel where she was to speak on the issue of decriminalisation of sex work.
Representing the minister at the event, Mhlanga told the Sunday Times: "We have failed as a health department to give a clear message that would help people prevent themselves getting HIV."
He said: "No one can deny that a person's immunity is affected by disease, by stress and by macroeconomic issues such as poverty. But these issues affect people at a different level. People are dying after being infected with HIV and that is what we should be concentrating on. "
Speaking on the issue of decriminalisation of sex work, he said this "has been on the books since 1995 but we have not had the resources to do anything ".
He said: "Sex work has been going on and it will continue. The people involved in this industry have rights and should have protection."
Laws outlawing prostitution have existed since 1957.
Puleng Matshelo, a principal state law adviser at the South African Law Commission, said that a discussion paper on the issue of sex work was being drafted.
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