Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2009. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - November 10, 2009
Motsoaledi said South Africans now had an average life expectancy as low as that of the people of a country at war.
"Life expectancy in South Africa at 47 years is like Afghanistan, which is at 44 years, and we know that they are at war. That means we are like a country that is at war," he said.
In 2005 life expectancy was 50.7 years compared to 63.3 years in 1990, according to Statistics SA.
The minister said that the shocking figures - which showed that some districts have HIV prevalence rates of up to 40% - could have been avoided if Mbeki's administration had taken action and showed leadership in the fight against the spread of the virus.
"As for the figures, it's shocking. And as for whether it has been affected by what we did in the past 10 years, to me that's obvious. I don't think we would have been here if we approached the problem in a different way.
"Yes, our attitude towards HIV/Aids put us where we are," he said.
"In the past, we were not really fighting HIV/Aids, we were fighting against each other. People still fight each other rather than the virus."
Motsoaledi told journalists in Parliament that the country's mortality rate was dismal in that, of the 59% of women who died in childbirth between 2005 and 2007, 79% were infected with HIV.
He said TB deaths were up by 334.8% - from 22071 in 1997 to 73903 in 2005.
"In KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga, our TB cure rate is 40% and we can't cure it beyond that. In the rest of South Africa it's 60%, when the rest of the world has a cure rate of 85%."
The health minister is, however, optimistic about turning the situation around.
"Is it reversible? Certainly, yes, it is. If it were not reversible, I would not be sitting here showing you all the plans. I would have called all of you and said 'It's bad, we are all dead, finished, full stop'," he said.
He said that, in undoing the damage done by Mbeki's administration, President Jacob Zuma's Cabinet had vowed to lead "from the front" and promised to provide strategic leadership in a bid to reduce the HIV infection rate and encourage voluntary testing.
"I told the president that, when we talk strategic leadership, it must start with him, and that, whatever we want to do, he has to be at the forefront.
"When it comes to voluntary testing and counselling, I'll go to him and ask him to be at the front of the queue and indications are that he is going to agree. The Cabinet has agreed that they must take the lead," he said.
Motsoaledi found it strange that antenatal clinics wanted to make testing for certain conditions standard, but not for HIV. He said he would propose that testing be standard procedure but women could choose not to be tested.
He said 2005-2007 figures showed that of the 4077 mothers who died while pregnant, 46.2% were HIV positive, 12.5% were negative and 41.3% were not tested.
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