Govt and TAC must unite in the fight against HIV

Mkhize told the TAC that the ANC's polokwane conference resolved to tackle health issues with vigour

ANC NEC (National Executive Committee) member Zweli Mkhize says Government and the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) should bury the hatchet and unite in the fight against HIV/Aids.

"I am aware that there was quite a lot of strain between the TAC and government and I said to some of the members, I hope we could bury that
as a chapter of the past," he told delegates at the TAC's 4th National Congress. "We hope that we will try to reduce all the tensions ... and bring us to a point where we will move forward as one army taking on one common enemy."

While relations between the TAC and government have thawed recently, they had in the past seen the NGO calling repeatedly for the resignation of Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
The axing of deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, who was among delegates at the conference, chilled further the icy
relationship between President Thabo Mbeki's government and the TAC.

The organisation at the time lauded Madlala-Routledge who, together with Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, led the development of the HIV/Aids National Strategic Plan. Mkhize told the TAC that the ruling party's Polokwane conference had also resolved to tackle health issues with more vigour.

The party had began a campaign to improve awareness and inform South Africans at the grass root level about the disease, its prevention and
its treatment. He urged the TAC to do the same during the congress through discussing ways to educate people about HIV/Aids at the "local level". - Sapa