Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

Stumbling over AIDS DEFENCE Minister Mosiuoa Lekota has developed an unfortunate habit of marching with his foot in his mouth since taking over the high-profile cabinet position. Little wonder he tends to trip up so often these days.

No obstacle appears more likely to cause him to stumble than the contentious issue of government's handling of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Recently Lekota came under fire after telling senior foreign envoys there was "no alarm" in SA over HIV/AIDS. His political opponents couldn't have wished for a handier stick with which to beat government and the ruling African National Congress, its resistance already severely compromised by President Thabo Mbeki's baffling HIV/AIDS denialism.

What Lekota also said at that meeting was that SA was not about to collapse as a result of HIV/AIDS, and that government was taking the issue seriously and putting programmes in place to contain the disease's impact. In that context, what he clearly meant was that there was no need for panic, that government now had a plan in place and was sticking to it.

Similarly, his comment that it was "not useful" for the South African National Defence Force to accept HIV-positive army recruits may have been clumsy, but it surely did not justify the ensuing outcry. No defence force in the world knowingly recruits HIV-positive people into combat positions, and many armies discharge personnel who become infected while in service.

The SANDF's position is in fact relatively "soft" by global standards - it will recruit HIV-positive people who are not yet symptomatic to certain administrative positions and ensures that current personnel who fall ill with AIDS receive treatment. HIV-infected applicants for active service positions are indeed turned away, but so are those with hepatitis, heart murmurs and diabetes; hard physical training and the likelihood of blood being spilt make any other course of action too risky.

The defence force is already struggling to cope with the "hollowing out" effect of AIDS as illness and death strike soldiers in the most vulnerable age group between 26 and 39, which also happens to be the age of the bulk of the army's footsoldiers. And, with at least one in five serving members HIV-positive, the military health support budget is terribly stretched as it is.

The SANDF does not need the added burden of being forced to recruit people it cannot use effectively and who it knows will inevitably add to its financial woes down the line.