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The SA National Defence Force would not recruit individuals for its military arm if they were HIV positive, the defence ministry maintained on Thursday.

But it denied contradicting the Cabinet, which stated on Wednesday that there was no government policy to exclude people from the SANDF merely because they were HIV positive.

"Each case is treated on its own merits," government spokesman Joel Netshitenzhe said then.

Ministry spokesman Sam Mkhwanazi confirmed that HIV-positive people would not be eligible for military recruitment, but insisted that the ministry and the Cabinet were talking with one voice.

He explained that HIV status had not been isolated as a criterion for recruitment. It was part of an "overall health assessment".

Mkhwanazi refused to give a yes or no answer to the question as to whether an HIV-positive person would be considered for the military.

Asked whether an HIV-positive person who passed every other aspect of the health assessment would be eligible, he said: "No, in as much as a person with a heart condition or poor eyesight would not be eligible".

Earlier this month, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said the SANDF did not recruit people with what he termed "the condition".

He said there was no point in recruiting HIV-positive individuals, explaining: "You can't take ill people into the positions into the army. It's not useful."

His statement was widely criticised and some lawyers believed the stance to be unconstitutional.

The defence ministry later denied discriminating against HIV-positive people, saying there was no ban on them doing civilian jobs in the military.

Netshitenzhe said on Wednesday that Lekota's words may have been distorted.

"You do not have a principled position of government, a principled policy, that merely because you test HIV positive you would then not be accepted into the SANDF."

The Aids Law Project (ALP) on Thursday welcomed the Cabinet's statement.

"The ALP is, however, extremely concerned to note that despite this pronouncement, the SANDF has excluded and continues to exclude job applicants with HIV from employment in the SANDF."

It cited four examples of individuals it claimed were refused employment by the SANDF for being HIV positive. One of them involved a woman who applied for a position as a nurse, whose initial positive HIV test results later turned out to have been false.

The SANDF's decisions in all four cases were currently being challenged by the ALP, with three ready to go to court.

"The ALP hopes that the statement by Cabinet will clarify the confusion that appears to exist between Cabinet and the SANDF," it said in a statement.

The SANDF's policies should immediately be brought into line with the Cabinet's position, the ALP added.