The Democratic Alliance has recently proposed that a separate ministry be created to deal with the HIV/AIDS pandemic in South Africa. They have further stated that the costs for this ministry would come from doing away with the current Sports Ministry. The Independent Democrats firstly believe that a Sports Ministry is vital in South Africa given the enormous challenges we face at successfully transforming our national squads into representative world-beating teams. This is a process that needs constant oversight and resources committed to it on the local, provincial and national level. ID would therefore strongly argue against the Ministry of Sports being removed.

On the important issue of HIV/AIDS, the Independent Democrats and its leader Patricia De Lille have consistently lobbied for it to be given greater priority in South Africa. ID, however, does not believe that the creation of a separate ministry dealing with HIV/AIDS is an optimal solution. This idea is not new and was in fact originally considered by the Independent Democrats in our first draft health policy. Extensive consultations between ID and various medical experts, AIDS activists and organisations made it clear to us though, that a separate AIDS Ministry would not be the best approach at tackling this pandemic.

In fact, the creation of such a ministry would most likely lead to greater government paralysis on HIV/AIDS and the pandemic being further marginalised. This has already been evident in the way that women and youth issues have been given less priority in mainstream politics through the creation of separate Women and Youth Commissions. A separate AIDS ministry distinct from the Health Ministry would also create unworkable tensions between the two departments and an unnecessary duplication of responsibilities. This would in turn lead to a conflict of ownership and a resultant loss of focus on this pandemic. ID believes that it would be wrong to simply create a separate AIDS ministry to make up for the failings of our present Health Minister. The department of health needs a strong Minister and support from the rest of government in carrying out its tasks. 

ID would rather argue for distinctive line functions on HIV/AIDS being included in every government ministry. Each of these line managers would then be held accountable for the manner in which their department's factor in and deal with the HIV/AIDS pandemic. These line managers should be held accountable to an overarching body like the South African National AIDS Commission (SANAC), which is currently housed in the Deputy President's office.  The Independent Democrats believe that HIV/AIDS needs to be thoroughly integrated into the thinking and actions of all government departments and must not be dealt with outside of them.

In proposing a separate ministry for HIV/AIDS, the Democratic Alliance falsely identifies government structures as being the problem in the State's handling of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. South Africa has more than enough structures to combat this pandemic. The element that is sorely missing, however, is committed, visible and sustained leadership on HIV/AIDS. The government's newly announced Anti-Retroviral Roll-out Programme entitled "The operational plan for complete HIV and AIDS care, management and treatment plan" is a comprehensive policy document that the Independent Democrats completely endorses. ID, however, questions the government's political will to implement this plan and to ensure that it is driven through the system. To achieve this requires strong political leadership on HIV/AIDS, which is unfortunately completely absent from both the ANC and the other opposition parties at the moment.