SOUTH AFRICA: South Africa's ruling African National Congress put AIDS at the top of its development agenda yesterday, saying the deadly pandemic could derail all other efforts to build the nation.
In a policy shift after what critics say has been years of neglect, the ANC said it was preparing a comprehensive battle plan to take on the disease already ravaging the country.
"Given the progression of the AIDS epidemic . . . our programme of transformation should not only acknowledge this danger, but it must also put the campaign against it at the top of our agenda," the ANC said in a statement on its development strategy, issued at a party conference in Stellenbosch.
The ANC's move follows mounting international criticism of South Africa's official response to AIDS, which now infects almost five million South Africans, or one in nine people.
President Thabo Mbeki has come in for sharp criticism after he publicly questioned the scientific link between HIV and AIDS.
Mr Mbeki, elected to lead the ANC for another five years this week, made only passing reference to AIDS during his keynote address to the conference on Monday, and later suggested that tuberculosis was currently probably a more serious problem.
But Mr Joel Netshitenzhe, chief government spokesman and ANC strategist, said yesterday the ANC now recognised that AIDS had ballooned into a huge problem since its last party conference in 1997, and was ready to deal with it.
Mr Netshitenzhe said the ANC would have an "appropriate resolution" on the subject, including details on how the ANC wanted the disease dealt with, when its conference closes today.
The ANC's Secretary-General, Mr Kgalema Motlanthe, said the party envisioned a multiple strategy to fight the disease, including provision of anti-AIDS drugs and reducing poverty to improve overall health.
The ANC previously identified the fight against poverty and the struggle to rectify racial imbalances as its key development objectives.