The MEC for Health and Social Development, Mr Seaparo Sekoati, said that, unlike the youth of 1976 who had apartheid as their enemy, the youth of today have poverty and HIV/Aids as their main targets.

He was speaking at an AIDS workshop for the youth of Phalaborwa and the surroundings areas at the Phalaborwa Community Hall on Tuesday.

Sekoati said Limpopo is one of the areas which is the hardest hit by the HI-virus, because it is the gateway to the rest of the African states, thus being the location for numerous long-distance truck stoppages. He said unemployment is another factor which is driving certain people to prostitution. According to him, the most vulnerable in these conditions are the youth, adding that there is a need for clear programmes and projects that would be aimed at addressing the youth.

Sekoati said that in the country, Limpopo remains the third lowest with a prevalence rate of 19.5% compared to the national figure of 29,5%. “Strategies such as the Comprehensive HIV and Aids Care, Management and Treatment Plan, which is making a difference in the fight against the disease, need to be supported by all sectors to improve the health status of our people,” he said. The MEC said that the HI-virus, besides being a health care concern, is also a human development issue, which suggests that economic development is the cornerstone for expanding people's choices.

He further indicated that the core of his department’s plan to mitigate the effects of the HI-virus remains prevention of infection, aimed at changing sexual behaviour and promotion of healthy lifestyles, encouraging delayed engagement in sexual activity among the youth, controlling and treating opportunistic and infectious diseases, consistent use of condoms and caring for those infected.

The MEC said that other diseases are co-factors of the disease. “It attacks the body's immune system with fatal consequences. As a result, it reduces life expectancy and quality of life, while exhausting our overburdened public health systems. In fact, the disease is pushing our systems to limits they have not yet faced,” he said.