Johannesburg - Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini has challenged society to be tolerant and wage a fight against discrimination across all genders.
"Society must never tolerate discrimination against gays ... and transgender people. At the same time, parliamentarians, the judiciary, law enforcement, educators, media as well as civil and religious leaders should be mobilised to build a culture of non-discrimination, tolerance and respect," Dlamini said.
Speaking at the South African Women's HIV Prevention Summit, Dlamini stressed the importance of implementing the UNAIDS campaign that speaks to zero new infections, zero deaths and zero discriminations to be the platform for the country's policies and strategies.
"Government and civil society need to engage in parallel advocacy work to embed a culture of human rights and zero discrimination so that all people are safe. The results of these endeavours should be reflected in the kind of social and legal environment we create to enable access to HIV programmes ... We must protect the human rights and dignity of all people if we are to effectively prevent the spread of HIV," she said.
Dlamini also challenged parents to rise to the occasion of social networks, where children have access to porn.
"If we don't talk to them, we are going to lose our children. We have to rise to the occasion. The good old days are gone," Dlamini warned women.
She further challenged "elite" women to involve other women in the "lower" class when talking about issues affecting them, instead of speaking on their behalf.
"Vulnerable people are the best people to speak for themselves, let's allow them to speak."
The two-day summit, which started on Tuesday, aims to engage high level policymakers, including researchers and advocates to discuss the HIV prevention agenda for women in South Africa.
The focus of the summit was on programming and implementation.
Dr Nonhlanhla Dlamini, Chief Director at the Department of Health on HIV Prevention, acknowledged the role played by people living with HIV and Aids, noting that the department has partnered with them in a bid to reduce new HIV infections.
"People living with HIV are an integral part of the prevention solution. As an intervention, they are part of the pre and post counselling and also part of support group activities, and part of health care worker activities," said Dr Dlamini.
