[DEBATE] : TAC on appointment of Hogan and Sefularo to Health portfolio

[Sean Jacobs]

TAC Welcomes the Appointment of New Health Minister

25 September 2008

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) welcomes the appointments of Ms  
Barbara Hogan as the Minister of Health and Dr Molefi Sefularo as the  
Deputy Minister of Health. We congratulate President Motlanthe for  
making these excellent appointments.


We are confident that Hogan has the ability to improve the South  
African health system. She has been one of the few Members of  
Parliament to speak out against AIDS denialism and to offer support to  
the TAC, even during the worst period of AIDS denialism by former  
President Thabo Mbeki and former Health Minister Manto Tshabalala- 
Msimang. 0n 14 February 2003, she received the TAC memorandum to  
President Mbeki for a treatment plan. She was removed as Finance  
Portfolio Chairperson by Mbeki in part for her stand on HIV/AIDS.  She  
has a reputation for being hard-working, competent and principled.


Hogan has a long record of struggle for human rights. Twenty-seven  
years ago, she was detained and tortured by the apartheid security  
Police. She was tried for treason as an ANC member and spent eight  
years in prison.


Dr Sefularo, during his tenure as MEC for Health of North West  
Province, supported ARV rollout and the implementation of the  
Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) in the province.


There are tremendous challenges ahead for Hogan and Sefularo. The  
inequalities of the apartheid system, the HIV epidemic and the utterly  
disastrous reign of Tshabalala-Msimang have left the health system in  
a parlous state. Hogan's biggest challenges will be to meet the  
treatment and prevention targets of the HIV/AIDS National Strategic  
Plan, integrate TB and HIV treatment, develop a feasible human  
resources plan for health workers and undo the considerable legacy of  
AIDS denialism left by her predecessor. The TAC will do all that it  
can to assist her and the Department of Health to meet these challenges.


Over two million South Africans died of AIDS during the presidency of  
Thabo Mbeki. At least 300,000 deaths could have been avoided had the  
president merely met the most basic constitutional requirements.  
Instead Mbeki and his health minister pursued a policy of politically  
supported AIDS denialism and undermined the scientific governance of  
medicine. Many more people would have died had it not been for the  
campaign for treatment and the independence of our courts, which  
ultimately forced Mbeki and Tshabalala-Msimang to implement an HIV  
treatment plan. We believe that the period of politically supported  
AIDS denialism has ended with the appointment of the Minister of Health.


We congratulate Hogan and Sefularo and wish them the best. Aluta  
continua!

For more comment, contact Zackie Achmat via Gavin Silber on 083 777  
9981 Lesley Odendal on 072 174 1205

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Sean Jacobs
Concerned Africa Scholars
Online at http://concernedafricascholars.org/