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SOUTH AFRICA: COSATU irked by Govt AIDS inaction

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

JOHANNESBURG, 11 September (PLUSNEWS) - The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is to call for intensification of the government's national plan against HIV/AIDS at its upcoming national meeting.

"Cosatu has over and over again expressed concern at the lack of clear leadership from the [government], and we shall be demanding that they play the leading role that the crisis demands of them," the South African Press Association quoted COSATU spokesperson Patrick Craven as saying.

While the unions appreciated the government's adoption of the ambitious 'Operational Plan for Comprehensive HIV and AIDS Care, Management and Treatment' in 2003, they said a huge gap remained between the plan on paper and its implementation on the ground.

A study by the University of Cape Town's Centre for Social Science Research showed that at the end of 2005 an estimated 194,000 people were accessing anti-AIDS drugs in South Africa, of which only 57.8 percent were obtaining them from the public sector.

[ENDS]

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