19:20 23.10.2008 | All news from "AIDS/HIV"
South Africa: Minister Responds to Napwa's Call for Hunger Strike
This comes after NAPWA claimed that grants for eligible people with HIV and AIDS had been allegedly removed from the social grant system by the department.
Minister Skweyiya said on Tuesday that he was surprised and saddened by the approach taken by Director of NAPWA, Nkululeko Nxesi, calling on HIV positive people and those living with AIDS to go on a hunger strike since the department had made every effort, after repeated meetings to address the matter.
He said Mr Nxesi and the leaders of NAPWA had failed in their commitment to give the department the names of eligible people they claim were removed from the social grants system.
"Where terminations or suspensions of a social grant may have adversely affected people and doctors have not established a case for a disability grant to be awarded, they are entitled to apply for the social relief of distress to ensure that their nutritional needs are met", said Minister Skweyiya.
He warned that Mr Nxesi must carry the responsibility for the bad advice he was giving to people living with HIV and AIDS thereby placing the lives of many good South Africans at risk.
Social Development Director General Vusi Madonsela said that the department has held several meetings with Mr Nxesi and members of NAPWA and had agreed to address the challenges affecting people living HIV and AIDS.
The department has, however, made it clear that the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) processes a disability grant application based on a medical report properly completed by a medical doctor and submitted to it.
"Whether or not a person is disabled or not is fundamentally a medical question, which only a qualified medical practitioner can determine," Mr Madonsela explained.
He further noted that SASSA always gives notice to temporary disability grant beneficiaries in good time to visit a medical practitioner to review their disability status.
Furthermore, grants were not given on the basis of someone's HIV or AIDS status but on the basis of a medical doctor's assessment of a person's functional abilities to do gainful work.
"SASSA does not suspend a disability grant on the basis of a person's CD4 count because its officials do not assess the medical condition of social grant recipients," Mr Madonsela said, adding that Mr Nxesi's claims against the department are unfounded and misleading.
According to Mr Madonsela, on every occasion Mr Nxesi made a similar claim and the department has requested him to prove the allegation or give the names of those people whose grants they claim have been suspended.
He said this goes back three years and to date, Mr Nxesi has not submitted the name of one such individual.
"More recently, the Treatment and Action Campaign (TAC) had a similar claim of the suspension of the grants of people with HIV and AIDS, the TAC has since provided the department with names of people and this has enabled the department to begin to investigate the matter," Mr Madonsela said acknowledging the TAC's cooperation in this regard.
In respect of other demands made by Mr Nxesi in the past, the department set up several task teams to work with NAPWA members.
According to the department, despite paying the costs of the NAPWA members to travel to the arranged meetings, they have failed to attend follow up meetings or submit to the department proper business plans when they make demands for funding projects to support people living with HIV and AIDS.
"NAPWA has thus far not accounted for the funds as required; Mr Nxesi has over the last three years used every opportunity to threaten the department that NAPWA's members would go on a hunger strike in solidarity with people who are HIV positive and living with AIDS.
"These threats were not only extremely irresponsible but also make it difficult to continue working with the leadership of NAPWA," Mr Madonsela said.http://allafrica.com/