North West Premier Bushy Maape and Chairperson of the Provincial Council on AIDS (PCA) said stigma against those infected with HIV/AIDS continues to derail the fight against the pandemic.
This emerged yesterday at the World AIDS Day Commemoration event held at the Lotlhakane village Sports Ground, outside Mahikeng.
Maape was accompanied by Health MEC Madoda Sambatha who gave feedback to the communities on the departmental interventions and progress made in the fight against HIV and STIs and outlined some of the challenges that require ongoing partnerships with civil society.
Maape cautioned against stigmatising and judging others by the colour of their skin or their health conditions and that this tendency needs to stop.
“This year’s theme is “Equalise and Integrate to End AIDS” which is a call to action for communities and stakeholders to work towards addressing inequalities and help to end the AIDS pandemic.
“Do you know and understand what it means to equalise? It is very important to understand as it will help you to see the importance of working together in the fight against HIV and AIDS.
“When you say equalise, it means we should stop divisions amongst each other. People get used to creating divisions and it needs to stop,” said the Premier.
Health MEC Madoda Sambatha said the recklessness of teenagers contribute significantly to the spread of HIV and he too condemned the “blesser phenomenon” where older men with access to money abuse their position and misbehave by targeting young girls to have relationships with.
“When these girls stop dating older men at the age of 30, they start dating boys their same age, and statistics show that from 30 years and above it’s no longer young girls with the high number of infections but young boys.
“So our behaviour in all age groups is very critical as without (a change of ) behaviour we cannot fight new infections,” said Sambatha.
An evening prayer session for people living with HIV and AIDS was held on Thursday evening at the Kgora Farmer Training Centre in the Mahikeng.
World AIDS Day is commemorated annually on 1 December and provides an opportunity for communities to unite in the fight against HIV, support people living with HIV and remember those who have succumbed to the virus.
The World Health Organisation, (WHO) recommends a renewed focus on populations that have been left behind in the global response to HIV and AIDS.
According to the Director General of the WHO, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, only 52% of children living with HIV are on life-saving treatment and he believes that if progress can be shown in ending new infections among children and ensuring all are on quality antiretrovirals (ARVs), there will be greater hope to ensure greater political commitment to end AIDS in all populations by 2030.
“Globally, 70% of new HIV infections are among people who are marginalised and often criminalised. We can only end AIDS by scaling up HIV services and removing structural barriers & stigma and discrimination of key populations in every country,” said Ghebreyesus.
