Johannesburg - More than 500 000 people had been tested for HIV in Gauteng in the past five months, the province's Premier Nomvula Mokonyane said on Tuesday.
She attributed this to the HIV Counselling and Testing (HCT) campaign launched by the national government earlier this year to have millions of South Africans tested for the virus.
"While we are very happy with this figure, we will be stepping up the campaign to get more people to test so that we can meet our target of three million people by the end of June 2011," Mokonyane said.
The campaign will now be intensified at shopping malls, public events, taxi ranks and other public places around the province.
Meanwhile, speaking at the Gauteng Legislature, the Premier said her government will be using the experienced gained during the recent FIFA World Cup in South Africa to beef up performance in public transport, traffic management and emergency services.
Gauteng hosted 21 of the 64 games including the opening and final matches. The province also had the highest number of attendance to matches placing a huge challenge on law enforcement authorities.
"All these lessons will be used at the advantage of the province...we now have modern stadia which compare to some of the best in the world, we have upgraded our transport infrastructure to meet the needs of Gauteng as the most urbanized and industrialised province".
The greatest legacy of the World Cup will be measured not only on the impact the people of South Africa made during the four-week showpiece, but rather how the achievements benefit the people in long time to come.
"During the World Cup we had an opportunity to test our public transport system and it proved to be very reliable, safe and efficient," she said.
Provincial transport officials will be working with municipalities to find ways to maximise the use of public transport in Johannesburg and Pretoria, two of the country's busiest cities.
