Cape Town – The Democratic governance and a culture of collaborative problem-solving is critical to ensure an effective State response to HIV/AIDS.

Jeff Radebe, Minister of Transport and Acting Minister of Health opened a Governance and AIDS Forum in the city yesterday (21 May, 2007).

He said the National Strategic Plan for HIV and AIDS for 2007-2011 has been developed and adopted in collaborative spirit between civil society and government. “This is the only way to reverse the rising HIV/AIDS infections rates in South Africa,” he said.

 “More importantly, the spirit of collaborative ownership is critical for the successful implementation of the Plan.”

He said the South African national AIDS Council (SANAC) is being “inundated with requests for further direction and leadership” and that this was a result of democratic governance, extensive consultation, inclusivity and collaborative problem-solving. He said the process of restructuring SANAC and the development of the Strategic Plan “inspired the nations to move with one voice in one direction”.

 The Governance and AIDS Forum is presented by the Governance and AIDS Programme of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa) to release findings of research in six African countries on the impact of HIV/AIDS on election processes.

Death of Members of Parliament, extra strain on Treasuries and power shifts due to the subsequent by-elections in cases where the “first-past-the-post” or “Westminster” system is still in place, the ability of electoral management authorities to ensure the integrity of voting procedures and the effect of stigma and discrimination on the ability of people living with AIDS to participate in elections will come under the spotlight. Representatives from SADC, policymakers, leaders of political parties and academics from the Southern African region are attending the conference to discuss the evidence from the research in Malawi, Namibia, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia will be discussed by

“Our findings show that there has been a sharp rise in the number of elected leaders that have died prematurely of illness in a number of countries” says Kondwani Chirambo who manages Idasa’s Governance and AIDS Programme. “There is no evidence that AIDS is the cause of every single death but if you compare the trends before the onset of the pandemic and after, we do see that patterns of death mimic the mortality pattern of the general population. From that it can be inferred that HIV/AIDS has been a factor in those deaths.”

In Malawi 31 Members of Parliament died in a space of eight years between 1994 and 2006. In 2000, the then Speaker of the National Assembly announced in an official statement that 28 of those deaths were AIDS related. In Zambia, 46 by-elections were held in the 20-year period between independence and the first reported AIDS cases (1964 and 1984). Of these, 14 were as a result of death and 32 as a result of resignations and expulsion. In the period between 1985 and 2003, 102 by-elections took place, 39 as a result of death – almost three times as many as in the previous and longer period. The cause of death is not recorded but 27 of the 39 people were in the vulnerable age range for AIDS related deaths. Here, the former Deputy Minister of Health has also declared publicly that political parties have lost people to HIV/AIDS.

The main reason for by-elections in the researched countries has changed from resignation and retirement to death of relatively younger politicians. “These deaths bring increased economic costs to the Treasuries of these countries,” says Chirambo. “And sometimes a vacancy stays open for a year, which means a lack of representation and a loss of voice.”

The Idasa research shows that especially in developing countries with strained economies HIV/AIDS will have to be considered as a factor in electoral system reform. Malawi and Zambia, like most other countries in Southern Africa, still conduct elections under the first-past-the-post system which requires by-elections when a representative leaves political office. Information from the Zambian Electoral Commission indicates that one by-election costs the country just more than U$200,000.00. In Tanzania the cost of a by-election could be as high as half a million US dollar. Because by-elections are not budgeted for, resources have to be re-allocated from other services in the national budget. This can have devastating effects on countries that are already relying heavily on donor and other aid.

A further consequence of by-elections is the potential shift in political power bases due to what Chirambo calls “election fatigue”. “Smaller parties lose out because they usually have fewer resources than the bigger and / or the ruling parties. It is also more difficult to mobilise voters for by-elections. Mostly, the Party with the most resources wins the seat and that is usually the ruling party.”

The research provides evidence that stigma and discrimination still set HIV/AIDS apart from other epidemics and that it is particularly difficult “to unravel” amongst the “political elite”. The lack of openness and disclosure among public representatives and politicians make it difficult to fully appreciate the impact on political leadership but high mortality among younger politicians provides a strong link to HIV/AIDS. Similarly the increased availability of Anti-retrovirals since the late 1990s is reflected in a declining trend in death rates at least in the case of Malawi. Members of Parliament and politicians usually fall in a social bracket where access to medical schemes and medical care is a given. This is in contrast to the majority of the poorer and more vulnerable population. In the South African study, stigma and discrimination were the most important reasons why people living with AIDS were not prepared to participate in elections. Participants in focus groups discussions said that in rural areas people were not prepared to stand in the same queue with someone who had body rashes or sores. Other factors that made it difficult to participate were lack of transport, toilets, seating facilities and running water at polling stations.

Research in South Africa found that between 1998 and 2003 South Africa lost up to 1.5 million voters. Approximately 60 percent were between the ages of 20 and 49. “This mortality profile correlates with the HIV/AIDS mortality profile in the general population,” says Chirambo. Most of these deaths occurred in provinces known to have high HIV/AIDS prevalence rates like KwaZulu Natal, Limpopo and Mpumalanga.

The conference also focuses on factors from the research that point to the resilience with which Africa has so far responded to some of the challenges of the pandemic. “A few years ago scholars were predicting apocalyptic scenarios for Africa,” says Chirambo. “These predictions, which included large-scale political instability and unmanageable crime levels, have not materialised so far. Understanding the extended family and kinship networks that have sustained African societies through disease, poverty and famine over centuries may offer some clues to this continent’s resilience to HIV/AIDS.”

The conference will also begin to look at possible solutions for some of the challenges identified in the research. “The forum is aimed at providing empirical evidence on how HIV/AIDS may or may not have affected our political institutions, but more importantly, what should be done about the problems and the gaps this research identified,” says Chirambo.  - Prepared by Idasa

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