Search
  1. Home
  2. Southern Africa
  3. South Africa
  • News

Health official hampering attempts to prevent HIV/AIDS

    JOHANNESBURG

    An HIV/AIDS advocacy group in South Africa's Mpumalanga province on Monday said the country's health authorities were preventing lives from being saved.

    The Greater Nelspruit Rape Intervention Project (GRIP) told the UN news agency PlusNews that local health minister Sibongile Manana, filed an application in the High Court on 28 January to have the group removed from local hospitals for dispensing HIV/AIDS drugs to rape victims.

    "Manana believes that we are undermining the national government's HIV/AIDS policy by providing these drugs," GRIP's chief executive, Barbara Kenyon said.

    "Manana has argued that because GRIP is providing free HIV/AIDS drugs, it is creating an expectation that state hospitals had to do the same," Anita Kleinsmidt, GRIP's attorney said.

    Kleinsmidt said GRIP will issue a plea in response to Manana's court application on 11 January and then wait for a court ruling on the matter.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

    Share this article

    Our ability to deliver compelling, field-based reporting on humanitarian crises rests on a few key principles: deep expertise, an unwavering commitment to amplifying affected voices, and a belief in the power of independent journalism to drive real change.

    We need your help to sustain and expand our work. Your donation will support our unique approach to journalism, helping fund everything from field-based investigations to the innovative storytelling that ensures marginalised voices are heard.

    Please consider joining our membership programme. Together, we can continue to make a meaningful impact on how the world responds to crises.

    Become a member of The New Humanitarian

    Support our journalism and become more involved in our community. Help us deliver informative, accessible, independent journalism that you can trust and provides accountability to the millions of people affected by crises worldwide.

    Join