By Thami Ngidi and Liz Clarke
An African National Congress MP has called on the government to introduce mandatory testing for sexually active citizens to determine the true extent of HIV and Aids in the country.
Ruth Bhengu, who was praised for her public declaration of support for Nosipho Bhengu, her HIV-positive daughter, said: "We must pass laws which make testing for HIV mandatory."
She said that the constitutional provisions for the right to privacy - used by some not to take an Aids test - be suspended to determine the extent of the disease.
Bhengu joins a growing list of ANC MPs who are breaking ranks with their party over its Aids policy.
Last week Pregs Govender, a fellow MP, called for "an operational plan" and massive education and funding to deal with mother-to-child transmission.
Bhengu said privacy could be protected by a law ensuring confidentiality of the information garnered by the state.
Her campaign comes as the ANC government prepares for a court battle with the Treatment Action Campaign over its position on providing Aids drugs to pregnant women.
It also comes in a week when Lionel Mtshali, the premier of KwaZulu-Natal, announced his province would soon be providing Nevaripine to pregnant women.
Mtshali's announcement means that the country's two non-ANC controlled provinces are ignoring President Thabo Mbeki's stance on not providing anti-retrovirals.
Also this week, doctors, nurses, health researchers, labour unions and churches all joined in saying the government has no legal, ethical, scientific or financial grounds for refusing to provide anti-retroviral drugs to people living with HIV or Aids.
The health department said it had spent R4 billion - about 12 percent of the health budget - on treating people with HIV in the past year.
"We are not all prepared to be soldiers in the war against the epidemic in the same way we were prepared to confront the enemy in the struggle against apartheid," Bhengu said.
Bhengu said mandatory testing was necessary in order to give a clearer picture of the virus that estimates say has already infected more than 36 percent of the population of KwaZulu-Natal and is now responsible for an increasing national mortality rate.
Early this year, Bhengu brought tears to the eyes of parliamentarians when she announced that her daughter was HIV-positive.
"We do not have reliable scientific figures on the extent of the infection rate. Figures available are based on the numbers of pregnant women attending government hospitals who test positive," Bhengu said.
She said every sexually active citizen should know their status so they could be treated and behave accordingly in order not to spread the virus.
Bhengu criticised the government for failing to take care of HIV-positive people.
"A key question today how do you protect those who are already infected? Let us allocate a budget empowering communities to take care of those who are infected. While it is correct that we are talking about the need for prevention, we are doing very little to take care of those that already have the virus," she said.
Meanwhile, thousands of supporters of mother-to-child anti-retrovirals nationwide have vowed to take to the streets simultaneously in support of a court action launched by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) to force the government to provide the anti-retroviral drug Nevirapine to pregnant women with HIV.
The court action starts in the Pretoria high court on Monday.
Also, in a build-up to World Aids Day on Saturday, December 1, thousands of people, including pregnant women, medical and health personnel, volunteer counsellors, trade union and religious leaders are expected to converge on city centres tomorrow for the start of a rolling action campaign against the government for its refusal to implement a national programme to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
The protest action will take the form of marches in Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town. The marches are organised by the TAC.