Civil society coalition announces new HIV/AIDS action plan

A coalition of South African civil society organisations on Tuesday revealed their response to the South African government's calls for greater unity in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), a national AIDS lobby group, has joined forces with other civil society organisations, including the South African National NGO Coalition (SANGOCO), the South African Council of Churches, the AIDS Consortium and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), to launch "an action plan to save lives."

According to a coalition statement, the first phase will be a two-day conference on South Africa's HIV crisis to achieve "national consensus on targets and programmes for HIV prevention and treatment, care and support, as well as on the restructuring of the National AIDS Council (SANAC), and to present this consensus statement to the government."

South African Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka called for a "new spirit" between government and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) in the fight against HIV/AIDS at a COSATU conference last month, after widespread criticism that SANAC has been ineffective and unrepresentative.

The government has been considering how to restructure its national AIDS body to include greater input from other sectors, and Mlambo-Ngcuka, chair of a new inter-ministerial committee on HIV/AIDS, described the involvement of NGOs in the government's efforts against AIDS as critical.

Prominent AIDS activist Zachie Achmat, of the TAC, said the coalition's role was to help create clear targets for reducing the numbers of AIDS-linked deaths and preventing new infections.

"We're ready to work with government, but we have to get on with the job if government is taking too long," he said.

According to Zanele Twala, executive director of SANGOCO, "It's time that civil society organisations stand up and put their weight behind the struggle against this pandemic and make our voices heard. We need to collaborate and come up with a national action plan that is owned by all of us and supported by all of us."

Referring to a long history of tensions between South Africa's health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, and AIDS activists, Hassen Lorgat, also of SANGOCO, emphasised that the coalition's goal was "to put a line under the squabbles" and focus on drawing up a comprehensive plan to deal with the pandemic.

The deputy president and the deputy health minister have both been invited to speak at the conference in Johannesburg on 27 and 28 October.

"We don't want this to be just another AIDS talk shop," said Mark Heywood of the TAC. "We want broad concensus on national targets and interventions, which we can then present to government for inclusion in its review of its strategic plan."