InterPress News Service (IPS); Thursday, 7 March 1996.
Gumisai Mutume

The scandal is arguably the most visible of the problems that have plagued the anti-HIV effort. It erupted when news broke that 3.6 million dollars had been spent on Sarafina II, a two-hour anti- aids play described by its detractors as a farce.

Critics, who include the ruling African National Congress' Women's League, say the play denigrates women and, is targeted only at black youths in townships, has a few garbled messages about Aids and has so far been seen by just 5,000 of South Africa's 41 million people.

But it is the money spent on the play that has caused concern and rumours that some of it has disappeared. The play's producer, Mbongeni Ngema, said he had little knowledge of how more than 260,000 dollars allocated to the play could not be accounted for.

The European Union (EU), which last year gave the Health Ministry about 12 million dollars for its AIDS awareness programme, has denied sanctioning the play's budget and Nkosazana Zuma's ministry has failed to adequately justify the amount it spent on Sarafina II.

Following a public outcry, including demands from opposition parties that the Health Ministry account for the money allocated to the play, the Office of the Public Prosecutor this week began an investigation into the matter.

The controversy compounds the difficulties the National AIDS Programme, run by the Health Ministry, had already been experiencing. For one, it has been working on a shoe-string budget. Last year it received 11 million dollars from the ministry, but a study of its needs has indicated that it requires about 80 million dollars.

Moreover, the programme is still in its early stages. Its directorate was appointed just one year ago and is still placing people in its provincial structures.

So far it has put up billboards across the country, begun life skills programmes in schools to teach girls in particular to refuse unsafe sex, trained health workers in managing sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and distributed 97 million condoms in 1995, up from 20 million in 1994.

However, much work still needs to be done and there is little money for it. As a result, the amount spent on Sarafina II appears unjustified, according to some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) here.

"I would have put that money into improving STD services across the country, where there is a pressing need," said Xoli Mahlalela, an evaluation associate of the AIDS Control and Prevention Programme (AIDSCAP) run by Family Health International.

"The problem is we are running out of time and the longer it takes, the greater the problem we are faced with," he noted.

Mahlalela added that he was also concerned that AIDS awareness had not yet been given a high profile on national television, a fact Rose Smart of the National AIDS Programme admitted, but attributed to financial constraints.

In the meantime, HIV has been increasing here. Every day, an estimated 500 people are added to the list of those infected with the virus, which causes the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Their number is now estimated at about two million.

However, the real number could be much higher since the stigma attached to HIV here discourages people from even taking tests to find out whether they are infected by the virus.

A survey conducted at the end of last year by Market Research Africa, an independent company, found that a majority of South Africans were prejudiced against people who are HIV-positive.

Out of a sample of 2,500 respondents, mostly urban dwellers, 97 percent indicated that they were aware of AIDS and 80 percent said they knew about HIV. However, 62 percent felt that job-seekers should undergo compulsory HIV tests, about a third said they would not invite someone infected with the virus for a meal, while 24 percent said they would not sit next to an AIDS sufferer in a restaurant.

"It indicates that, despite 'a 97-percent awareness' of AIDS, there is still no understanding of the manner in which HIV is transmitted," noted Mark Heywood of the AIDS Law Project at the University of Witwatersrand. "If they were, the public would understand that there is no medical, scientific or economic justification for pre-employment testing for HIV."

But getting people to know about the disease is the easiest part of a campaign that also seeks to change their sexual behaviour and improve access to STD services, in addition to making condoms more available and increasing their use.

There appears to be little change in sexual behaviour Mahlalela notes, so: "People may have condoms in their pockets but not necessarily use them."

However, the National AIDS Programme aims to increase the distribution of the female condom. It has bought 90,000 femidoms and is carrying out a pilot project to place them in two selected clinics in each of the country's 10 provinces.

It will later assess their viablity and is expected to propose that the government subsidise the expensive prophylatic. (END/IPS/GM/KB/96)

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