Call for parliament’s HIV committee to be revived

The committee was set up in 2012 after lobbying by civil society for the ratification of recommendations of the Inter Parliamentary Union and the Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum (SADC-PF) on a Joint Committee on HIV and AIDS. The Committee’s mandate was to monitor the work of the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) and other HIV and AIDS related issues of national interest.

But, said Nombasa Gxuluwe, Programme Officer of World AIDS Campaign International, at a meeting in St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town this week, parliament had never given much attention to the committee and it was no longer included in the list of parliamentary committees.

“We are worried about what would happen if there is no leadership in terms of monitoring and evaluating such programmes. What it means is that nationally there is no proper follow up in reaching our targets,” she said.

Sonke Gender Justice, the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, AIDS Accountability, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) were among 30 civil society organisations calling for the revival of the committee.

“We have not been given any indication as to why the HIV/AIDS committee was not reinstituted in the current parliament,” said TAC’s Marcus Low. “A number of letters and other attempts at engagement with parliament have not provided us with any clarity.”

“We are concerned that parliament is not paying sufficient attention to the crisis in our healthcare system. Parliament seems increasingly out of touch with the difficult realities that our members face when looking for help in an increasingly dysfunctional public healthcare system. In our communities HIV and TB are still an emergency, but in parliament it seems to be treated as little more than just another agenda item to be briefly discussed and then forgotten again.”

“This committee is supposed to represent the people and give a report on progress made,” Daniel Molokele, Executive Director of AIDS Accountability International, told the Cape Town meeting. He said attempts to discuss this with parliament had failed. Deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa, who chairs SANAC, had also been alerted.

“We urge civil society to speak with one voice, then government may take the issue seriously,” said Mmapaseka Steve Letsike, deputy chairperson of SANAC.

Gxuluwe said such committees were working well in other SADC nations such as Botswana and Zimbabwe.