15 October 2008
editorial
Johannesburg — IT'S a privilege for us ... to say and feel confident that HIV causes AIDS without threats."
University of KwaZulu-Natal vice-chancellor Prof Malegapuru Makgoba's relieved response to newly appointed Health Minister Barbara Hogan's frank assessment of the AIDS crisis sums up the consensus view on the decision to shunt her predecessor Manto Tshabalala-Msimang to a portfolio where she can at least no longer do harm.
Hogan's no-nonsense reputation and immediate willingness to confront pressing health issues without the defensiveness, denialism, bizarre red herrings and disingenuous spin that characterised her predecessor's tenure were bound to come as a breath of fresh air. As daunting as the health challenges confronting SA may be, the new minister's debut on stage follows an especially poor opening act, so comparisons can only flatter and erstwhile critics will applaud even statements of the obvious, for a while at least.
However, as with so much else arising from the new order in the ruling party, for the foreseeable future change is likely to be restricted to management style and efficiency of policy implementation. That is partly because government policies in respect of issues such as AIDS treatment, among others, are in fact quite workable; they have not been as effective as they could have been because they came too late and were constantly undermined by an incompetent minister.
At some point, presumably after next year's election, the African National Congress (ANC) will have to review its approach to more controversial matters, such as medicine prices and regulating private healthcare provision. Hogan has indicated that nothing will be done in this area "with undue haste", which will improve her popularity rating among health professionals further, given the battering they have experienced at the hands of Tshabalala-Msimang. But it remains to be seen how long the ANC's increasingly strident ideologues will be satisfied with the benefits to be gained from picking the low-hanging fruit.
Copyright © 2008 Business Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
Read comments. Write your own.
