Overcoming the legacy of apartheid

Overcoming the legacy of apartheid 

Despite the carping, South Africa has begun to beat poverty and Aids 

Lindiwe Mabuza
Thursday February 20, 2003
The Guardian 

It has become fashionable in some circles to run down post-apartheid 
South Africa. This occurs not only in those sections of the media 
that believe African success is a contradiction in terms but also, 
more surprisingly, in quarters that strongly supported our 
transition to democracy and drive towards social justice. The 
Guardian's columns have not been exempt from criticism: Chris 
McGreal delivered some intemperate parting shots when he finished 
a 12-year stint as a southern Africa correspondent. We take such 
criticism seriously, but also find it inadequately based in fact 
and reality. 

Take HIV/Aids. The latest survey by South Africa's human sciences 
research council confirms a UNAids report that shows falling 
levels of HIV infection among young South Africans. Prevention 
messages about condom use, abstinence and faithfulness are being 
taken to heart, especially by young people. 

The proportion of people in the 15 to 19 age group with no sexual 
partner was 60% in 1998 and 70% in 2002. Use of a condom among the 
same group was 20% in 1998 and 49% in 2002. For 20- to 24-year-olds 
it was 8% in 1998 and 47% in 2002, while access to condoms is 
continually expanding. And the survey also nails another myth with 
its finding that fewer than 2% of South Africans believe Aids can 
be cured by sex with a virgin - a long way from the 25-30% claimed 
in a recent BBC documentary. 

Meanwhile, HIV incidence among the under-20s has fallen for the 
third year in a row. These figures reflect the impact of our 
programmes, starting from the premise that HIV causes Aids, and 
combining prevention, comprehensive treatment and care. 

Of 27,000 registered medical practitioners in South Africa, only 
2,000 have been trained in providing care for people with HIV/Aids.
So the department of health is running large-scale training 
programmes and campaigning to ensure that patients observe their 
doctor's advice. 

We are also working towards lowering the cost of anti-retroviral
 drugs, including those used in the treatment of HIV. In concert 
with the pharmaceutical companies the government is drawing up
regulations to facilitate the import and manufacture of cheap 
and generic drugs. 

On the economic front, the news is encouraging. The rand has 
climbed back against the dollar. The minister of finance has 
announced a need to revise upward the estimates of economic 
growth from 3.5% next year. The revised figures could bring the 
country within striking distance of the kind of growth rates 
needed to contain unemployment. 

These trends are the product of sound economic policy that has 
also generated funds for increased social spending. A steady 
shift of resources towards meeting the needs of the poor continues 
with, for instance, a substantial increase this year for relief 
from the impact of high food prices. Real growth in public spending 
on services will average 4.7% a year for the next three years. The 
cabinet has just approved a policy of free basic electricity for 
poor households. More than half the population is already supplied 
with free basic water. And no fewer than 10 million people have 
been given access to clean water since 1995 and between 1995 and 
2000 many more households gained access to basic services. 

It is not just access to necessities that is improving. Since 
1994, refrigerator ownership is up from 48% to 61%; electrical 
hotplates in rural homes have increased 360%; and many more 
people now have music centres in their homes. 

While a recent report by Statistics SA found that the cash 
income of the poor had been lagging, this did not take account 
of increases in the "social wage". In the context of greatly 
expanded access to services and social infrastructure - including 
the policy of providing free basic services - the reality is 
that the frontiers of poverty are being pushed back. 

Reasonable people should feel convinced that South African 
democracy is steadily making it. The fabric of society is mending. 
Central elements of the programme of delivery are working, some 
remarkably well. As for the odd critical blitz from hostile 
quarters, we can take it. 

So far, we are on track. This is despite the vast inequities and 
hurdles inherited from centuries of colonial domination and 
decades of institutionalised racial discrimination - which denied 
the vast majority of our people the right to self-respect, 
dignity and access to basic amenities. Modern South Africa may 
have its problems, but they are nothing compared to the degradation 
that our people endured under apartheid. 

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·: Lindiwe Mabuza is the South African high commissioner in Britain