Lennox slams South Africa on Aids

Published on Saturday 19 September 2009 19:56

SINGER Annie Lennox has said South Africa's failure to fund an Aids treatment programme is a disgrace, and that the country risks falling apart unless it tackles the HIV virus.

The country has the world's largest Aids epidemic. At least 5.7 million people are infected with HIV, and Aids kills an estimated 1,000 people a day.

South Africa's health minister Aaron Motsoaledi said this week the government's HIV programme had a shortfall of around one billion rand (82 million) and that the country would not meet a target of providing life-prolonging drugs to 80 per cent of HIV/Aids sufferers by 2011.

"This is a disgrace, this should not be happening. South Africa has many, many resources," Lennox said. "It's a very young democracy, but at the same time if they don't address this issue, things are just going to fall apart."

South Africa, rich in natural resources, is battling its first recession in 17 years.

The Scottish star has set up a campaign named "Sing" (www.annielennoxsing.com) to raise awareness of the Aids crisis in South Africa.

Acknowledging South Africa faced a "massive" challenge, she said: "I think we have to give as much attention to this and full support to really try and make that challenge be met."

If successful, it would offer a blueprint for the rest of the continent, she said. Life-prolonging antiretroviral drugs were not widely enough available, she said, and continued: "Only 40 per cent of the people that actually require treatment are receiving it …

"You have in rural areas, for example, such a broken-down healthcare system where you have two doctors to half a million people."

"People will walk, will crawl, they'll be pushed in wheelbarrows or carry people on their backs to get to the clinic," she said, after giving a talk to business leaders and policymakers at a London conference.

South Africa's response under former president Thabo Mbeki was heavily criticised, but president Jacob Zuma's appointment of Motsoaledi, a respected doctor, has been welcomed.

Lennox, who met Motsoaledi a few months ago, said he understood the problems and knew what needed to be done.

Lennox sold millions of records as half of Eurythmics and went on to a successful solo career. In the past two years, she has raised more than 1.2m for HIV and Aids causes.