House Chairperson,
On this World AIDS Day, we must confront the sobering truth: HIV/AIDS in South Africa is not only a medical crisis but a moral and cultural one. With 7.8 million South Africans living with HIV, the majority are women and girls. UNAIDS confirms that 65% of those infected are female, reflecting the devastating impact of cultural pressures that push young girls into sex before marriage.
Antenatal HIV surveys conducted by the National Department of Health and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) show much higher HIV prevalence among Black African women compared with Indian, Coloured, and White women. Teenage pregnancy rates follow a similar pattern. Why?
Research at universities show that boys are often expected to prove masculinity through sexual activity, while girls are pressured into compliance, leaving them vulnerable to pregnancy and HIV, and then their babies vulnerable also.
Young people’s early sexual activity is found to be compounded by silence in families about delaying sexual activity before marriage and HIV prevention.
While the ACDP asserts that sex education must be changed to impress the value of abstinence until marriage, and government must put its weight behind efforts to make abstinence the “right thing to do,” parents and uncles and aunts need the support and encouragement to make it clear to kids that sex before marriage can have grave repercussions. Boys and men must be taught not to pressure girls into sex – and legislation must be implemented making them, or their families, responsible for the maintenance of the children they sire. Too many girls are left carrying the baby alone!
The ACDP calls for the convening of a multi-sectoral national dialogue on HIV, Teen Pregnancy, and Cultural Transformation, convened by Parliament in partnership with the Government, the Commission for Gender Equality, and with participants from Treasury, faith-based organisations, civil society and a wide base of other participants.
Honourable House Chair, since US aid was cut, AIDS cases are rising in the country. We must interrogate the AIDS response, focusing on not only adequate funding, but also principled values installed when children are young, that protect our daughters, empower our sons, and restore hope to the nation, whether we have enough money or not.
I thank you.
