As Botswana joined the rest world in commemorating World AIDS Day, it is reassuring that the political leadership and the National AIDS Coordinating Agency (NACA) are again at the forefront of renewing the national battle against this epidemic which at some point in the past threatened to decimate our population and reverse the country’s economic gains.
NACA recently partnered with faith based organizations and held a monumental crusade which saw multitudes from the Zion Christian Church (ZCC) join hands with government in the fight against the AIDS scourge.
Noteworthy was the address by the church leader Right Reverend Dr Barnabas Lekganyane who unequivocally urged government to take drastic measures against anybody who claims to cure AIDS.
It is our ardent hope that government took his free advice seriously and will do all in its power to clamp down on anybody who claims to cure this incurable disease.
Lekganyane’s call on government to take stern action against whoever claims to cure the disease is a quite a big leap in that in the past there have been reports that some Christian denominations prevented their members from enrolling in the anti-retroviral programme under the guise that it is only God who will heal them. The same goes for traditional medicine men who claim to have a cure. The fact of the matter is that a cure for the disease has not yet been found.
For the advice to have been rendered by Dr Lekganyane himself in front of the magnitudes of his own followers reassures us that as a nation our effort to fight this horrendous scourge, and possibly eliminate it by 2016, is not an impossible task.
This is especially so given that the Minister of Health Reverend Dr John Seakgosing highlighted at the same occasion the fact that government is spending P1 billion annually on the acquisition of ARV drugs. This is a lot of money that is being diverted from other projects of equal national importance.
The invitation of Dr Lekganyane resuscitated hope that while at some point in the past we feared that the political leadership under President Ian Khama had lost the zeal in the fight against the scourge, the truth of the matter is that government is doing all in its power to ensure that the fire is kept burning.
It is equally reassuring that since his ascendance to the presidency, Khama has made it a point that every year when the rest of the world commemorates World AIDS Day on December 1, he is at the fore front of the local commemorations. This is a commendable act by the Head of State. It affirms his commitment in the fight against the scourge.
In his address at the commemoration in Ramotswa, the president noted the hard and painful journey as witnessed by loss of family members and friends and the negative impact on the growth and development of our small fledgling nation at the height of the epidemic.
It is further reassuring that government is clinging to its zero infections campaign by 2016 when the country celebrates 50 years of independence. It is equally notable that the new HIV prevalence rate stood at 16.9 percent in 2013 from 17.6 percent in 2008, reflecting the benefits the country continues to reap from investing in the various national programmes in the past five years or so.
The president further noted that “we have steadfastly overcome the stigma due to heightened awareness campaigns”.
It is commendable that government is not sitting on its laurels and basking in the glory of past achievements in combating the scourge but rather intensifying the fight with the introduction of the new preventive methods like safe male circumcision that improved from 11 percent in 2008 to 24.3 percent in 2013.
Khama also stressed that government had accelerated its socio-economic interventions to deal with poverty, unemployment, food insecurity and inequality as conditions that that have a bearing on the AIDS epidemic.
His appeal to various communities ranging from the business to religious sectors to continue working with the government in this endeavour is another affirmation of his commitment to HIV/AIDS fight.
What is worrisome, however,  is the contradiction to the interventions by promulgation of regressive laws that threaten to throw us back to the age of stigma that we have somewhat overcome.
Certain provisions of the new Public Health Act have been condemned by various experts in that they stand to reverse the past gains made and re-stigmatize those that are infected with HIV/AIDS.
Government should have delayed passing into law the new Public Health Act and allowed further consultations on the bill while controversial issues were being resolved.
It is distressing that government disregarded interventions made against regressive and discriminatory provisions that were finally retained when the bill was passed into law.
