Politics and Policy – Media Watch
SA’s approach to ‘underage’ sex is two-faced
Today the Mail and Guardian’s Mia Malan gets to grips with the struggle on how to address teen pregnancy, which sees conservatives and human rights approach activists at loggerheads.
Malan explores the rift between the two parties, who advocate different means of addressing the twin troubles of soaring teen pregnancy rates and HIV infection.
The article has quotes from those who believe that sex education and life skills programmes should be strengthened in schools and that condoms should be made available.
However conservative elements located in the health and education departments fear that these measures would encourage youngsters to have sex. They are reportedly sticking to their ‘abstain’ or ‘be faithful’ guns as the best way to prevent unwanted pregnancy and HIV.
New focus on non-communicable diseases
Following on news that world leaders are meeting in New York this week to co-ordinate a response to non-communicable diseases (which do not spread from person to person, or from animal/insect to human), a smattering of articles on the looming threat these conditions pose have appeared in the news media.
Many articles have cited statistics which claim that most of the deaths due to these ‘lifestyle diseases’ are concentrated in developing countries which up until now have been focused on addressing infectious diseases like, HIV and malaria.
ART, lies and videotape
It is estimated that over 300, 000 HIV-positive South Africans who could have lived long and healthy lives on ART, died from the effects of uncontrolled HIV infection, during the Mbeki-Manto HIV misinformation era.
The TAC’s campaign which fought and eventually won out against this menace is the subject of ‘TAC-Taking Haart’ a film reviewed in today’s Mail & Guardian by Shaun de Waal.
Provincial funding fiasco
An article in yesterday’s The Times has reports that “corruption and incompetence” are standing in the way of efficiently spending HIV grants.
Mpumalanga province has been implicated in the under spending of money for HIV grants, having spent only R81-million of its budget which amounts to a whopping R134-million.
