Pretoria - Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe is expected to give an indication of whether government is winning the fight against HIV when he tables the first mid-term review of the HIV and AIDS National Strategic Plan (NSP) next week.
Speaking during the Presidency's Budget Vote in Parliament on Wednesday, Motlanthe said the review provides an independent assessment of how the country has performed at the local, provincial and national levels across the four NSP key priority areas.
This included strengthening a partnership between government, business, organised labour and civil society.
Motlanthe, who also chairs the country's National Aids Council (SANAC), said great effort has been made to strengthen the organisation's work through the setting up of structures responsible for policy advice, coordination and management of the national response to HIV, AIDS and TB. SANAC now has a permanent secretariat with full-time capacity.
Motlanthe said the announcement earlier this year of an additional R5.4 billion to improve the effectiveness of the treatment programmes will go a long way to speed up government's response to the pandemic.
"Already, the public health system provides antiretroviral treatment to a globally unprecedented 1 million people. I am convinced that through these financial commitments we will double this number over the next three years," he said.
To meet the challenge of supporting non-governmental organisations and of improving the response capacity of the Department of Health, Motlanthe said South Africa successfully applied for funding from Round 9 of the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria.
The signing ceremony for this funding, which is estimated to about $100 million over 5 years, will take place later this week.
The second target of the NSP is to halve the rate of new infections and it is here that SANAC will concentrate the bulk of its efforts.
Motlanthe said the national HIV Counselling and Testing (HCT) campaign launched by President Jacob Zuma last month has since been taken over in most provinces by the Premiers, MECs, Mayors and social partners. "It is through this kind of partnership, commitment and leadership in action that we can stem the tide of new infections."
Through this campaign, government is assessing the strength of the public health infrastructure which is crucial as the country moves towards the National Health Insurance scheme.
