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 SAMWU on World Aids Day.
SAMWU PRESS STATEMENT.
30th November 2009.
It is at this time of year, when World Aids Day comes around, that we are able to reflect on where we are as a community, country, a continent and as a Working Class Movement in relation to HIV/Aids.
What we can state categorically is that there has been a ‘wind of change’ in Governments responses to the HIV/Aids crisis compared to the cold, distant and denial-ridden period that characterised the previous Presidency of our country. It is now acknowledged that the culture of denialism and its paralysing impact on public consciousness about HIV/Aids has cost us dearly. Conservative estimates put the number who has died as a result of not seeking or being ill-advised about treatment at over 300,000. This is a truly shocking indictment and we must all bear some of the responsibility for allowing it to configure our thinking and the inadequate responses it produced.
For many generations to come there will be thousands of families made up of children only, who will be parentless. There will be orphans begging on the streets of our cities who have lost everything. There will be countless others still traumatised at losing loved ones in a climate of silence and fear.
SAMWU would like to congratulate those who stood firm against the tsunami of denial; the thousands of nurses and carers who witnessed the devastation of the disease, the community activists that ran workshops and meetings to counter denialism and tell the truth and the few politicians who said that the arguments emanating from the Presidency and the Department of Health were misguided, harmful and irresponsible. We would like to congratulate our comrades in the TAC and COSATU who refused to be bludgeoned into silence.
Our Government has started the long hard road back from the brink of catastrophe, and has embraced the insights of the TAC and COSATU. It is committed to rolling out treatment to every corner of the country. We congratulate the Government for this. We do know however, through our own membership networks of community health workers that many of the old delusional ideas continue to limit the responses that should be developed. We know that some hospitals turn patients away, and that many of our poorer communities remain at risk of devastation. This must come to an end once and for all.
We also acknowledge that as a Movement, we do not do all that we can to defeat HIV/Aids; we rarely tackle the silences that dominate the funerals we attend when the cause of death is raised. We stand on the sidelines as we witness our comrades and loved ones descend into ill health. We fail to tackle the misinformation born of ignorance that we hear in our communities and workplaces. We say we stand with our comrades who are affected and infected, but what does this mean in practice? We know we have a special responsibility to challenge the stigmatism that allows those affected by HIV/Aids the space to be discriminated against.
Lets us all recommit ourselves to making an unambiguous commitment to the fight against HIV/Aids. Let us take responsibility for ourselves, our communities, our workplaces, and for our class. Let’s make HIV/Aids history!
For comment contact the SAMWU International Officer Stephen Faulkner on 011-3310333 or 0828175455.
Tahir Sema.
South African Municipal Workers' Union of COSATU.
National Media and Publicity officer.
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Office: 011-331 0333.
Cell: 0829403403.
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Worker's News April 2008 PART 1 (514)
