It was set up as the highest body advising the government about HIV and Aids, but after three years the South African National Aids Council (Sanac) remains toothless and, some members say, a waste of time.

Many civil society representatives were fuming after the council’s two-and-a-half-hour meeting on Saturday.

“I sat wondering why I was there,” two Sanac members said. “The government does not take Sanac seriously as an advisory body,” said another.

In November, Sanac decided to hold a two-day meeting as soon as the cabinet approved its far-reaching HIV and Aids plan.

‘I sat wondering why I was there’
The meeting was scheduled for February, reduced to three hours and postponed to May, and then moved to Saturday.

Sanac has thrashed out how drugs may be provided and the role civil society may play.

“It’s hard to find a way into any serious kind of discussion,” said the Aids Law Project’s Mark Heywood. “Delegates are sitting around as if there aren’t five million people in desperate situations.”

On the agenda were the coming international HIV and Aids conference in Bangkok and the Global Fund for Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Health Minister Manto Tshabala-Msimang reportedly spent the first 10 minutes scolding civil society delegates about semantics: “Don’t talk about HIV/Aids, we must say HIV and Aids. It is not the anti-retroviral rollout, it is a comprehensive plan to fight HIV and Aids.”

‘Don’t talk about HIV/Aids, we must say HIV and Aids’
Delegates also complained:
They received the agenda minutes before the meeting, so they could not seek mandates from those they represented.

They “doubt anyone reads” the reports they write.

They are not kept up to date about key developments, such as Global Fund grants.

A call seeking comment from the minister’s spokesperson was not returned.

This article was originally published on page 6 of Cape Times on June 22, 2004

Source: Independent Online (IOL)
URL: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click…/p>