SAfrican government denies HIV/AIDS impacting on defence force's operations
Defence Minister Mosioua Lekota yesterday dismissed criticism that the rate of HIV and AIDS infection among soldiers was affecting the work of the military in defending South Africa.
Answering questions in the National Assembly yesterday, Lekota said this criticism was based on reports that there was an 89 per cent infection rate in the South African National Defence Force (SANDF).
"To suggest that there is an 89 per cent infection rate creates an unfortunate, wrong and unfair impression that the SANDF is inefficient," said Lekota.
He repeated earlier assertions that the rate was between 17 and 23 per cent, which reflected the statistics for South Africa in general.
Lekota said the Defence Department was trying to encourage soldiers and their families to volunteer for testing. This would provide a more accurate picture of the rate of infection, which would enable the department to make effective interventions.
To assist in this testing process, the SANDF already has two testing stations open, with a further two to follow.
It is expected that six testing centres will be opened around the country over the next year.
Lekota was responding to a question from the Democratic Alliance's Rafeek Shah that the SANDF was losing 338,000 work days a year because of people living with the disease.
Shah said this was compromising the operational readiness of the SANDF.
Independent Democrats leader Patricia De Lille said that statistics were "meaningless" and wanted to know what the SANDF was doing to assist those who are HIV positive. Lekota said those sick soldiers who could not be redeployed had access to home care.
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19 Août 2004 à 17:35 dans
- zsandf (anglais)
