wfn.org | Archbishop Ndungane says SA Government sinning by denying AIDS drugs

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

ACNS 2866 - SOUTHERN AFRICA - 8 February 2002

Government sinning by denying AIDS drugs

Johannesburg

25 January 2002

[South African Press Association] The government was sinning against God by
denying life-saving medication to mothers and children facing the threat of
HIV/Aids, Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane of Cape Town said on
Friday.

In a toughly worded speech prepared for delivery at the opening of new
premises for an HIV research unit at Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital, he
said that the government was accountable to God.

"When the government stands in the way of our right to life, then the
government has overstepped its boundaries," he said. "Withholding truth and
maintaining the silence of denial is sinful."

The Archbishop, who has repeatedly called for South Africa's HIV/AIDS
epidemic to be declared a national emergency, said that people of faith
valued life, especially the lives of mothers and their children.

"The continuing policy of silence and denial, which withholds life itself,
is unacceptable," he said. "It violates our Constitution, which guarantees
life to all citizens, and for which many have already died in the struggle
for our freedom."

The government has come under fire for refusing to administer
anti-retroviral drugs to rape victims reporting to state health facilities.
It has also been challenged over its reluctance to provide the same drugs to
HIV-positive mothers, to reduce the possibility of transmission to their
children during birth.

Calling for leadership that could be trusted and supported, the Cape Town
primate said, however, that he had been encouraged by a recent statement by
President Thabo Mbeki that the government had a comprehensive AIDS policy
"premised on the fact that HIV causes AIDS".

Government spokespersons are on record as saying that the AIDS policy is
based on the "premise", rather than "fact", that HIV causes AIDS.

Archbishop Njongonkulu urged the government to do more towards preserving
the lives of South Africans at risk. It should legitimise the distribution
of drugs to help prevent mother-to-child transmission of the disease, and to
help the survivors of rape combat infection.

"We invite our government into a partnership for life, rather than a
confrontation over death." He said that incidents such as the recent wrangle
over the administration of anti-retroviral drugs to raped Northern Cape Baby
Tshepang made him fear that "we are frozen in the headlights of bureaucratic
stubbornness".

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