That will directly impact on AIDS statistics in the foreseeable future. Costly, yes, but this is a dose of medicine which we cannot avoid. We owe it to our children and their children. The knowledge we are gaining from this programme belongs to all and we will share our findings fully with any province, or with anywhere else in the world for that matter. With poverty levels as high as they are at present, we have to invest all our resources in stopping the AIDS pandemic right now to avoid economic collapse in the future.
Government also carries an enormous load of social responsibility.
We must recognise not only the immense role of poverty in supporting the spread of HIV but also the violation of the basic human rights of thousands of South African women who are infected by men who still insist on their traditional ways of life. These ancient traditions are making a mockery of the African Renaissance dream. The Government of the Western Cape is determined to slow the AIDS pandemic in this Province. We will do this by leveraging to the maximum provincial budgets and also our pool of independent-thinkers in the fields of public health, education and poverty relief and private enterprise. Texts and graphics may be reproduced freely, under the condition that their origin is clearly referred to, see Conditions .