Health department urged to get house in order

The Treatment Action Campaign says there is a human resource crisis in the health department. The lobby group's Fredalene Booysen says unless it is immediately addressed, the government's National Strategic Plan on HIV/Aids will fail.

Booysen was speaking ahead of a planned protest by a host of civil society organisations at the St George's Cathedral later today. Booysen says the axing of former deputy health minister, Nosizwe Madlala-Routledge, is a setback for South Africa's fight against Aids.

"She was the person who was the mediator between civil society and government. She gave people living with HIV hope, and we believe that the only thing she is really guilty of was to be open and honest about the HIV pandemic that we are currently experiencing," she said.