South Africa is set to almost quadruple its spending on HIV/AIDS, a move analysts said signalled a major shift in political will to fight a pandemic ravaging the country.
Finance Minister Mr Trevor Manuel said the government would spend 12.1 billion rand ($1.75 billion) over the next three years, with 1.9 billion rand earmarked to launch the roll-out of a national anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment programme.
"Starting next year and the two successive years the amounts have been increased, I think we are talking about a total of 12 billion rand," Mr Manuel said today prior to unveiling the medium term budget in Parliament.
This compares with an estimated 3.3 billion rand spent between 2001/02 financial year to the current 2003/04 year. Treasury officials said the funds allocated for the roll-out of the life-prolonging ARV drugs was new money.
"This is good news. It's a positive signal which does suggest to me that the government is going to spend almost as much as it does on black economic empowerment. It's become a government priority," said Professor Tom Lodge of the University of Witwatersrand.
South Africa has the highest HIV/AIDS caseload in the world - an estimated 5.3 million, equivalent to more than 12 per cent of the population of 45 million.
But health activists have accused the government of dragging its feet, with President Thabo Mbeki and Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang criticised for failing tograsp how serious the crisis is.
Under growing local and international pressure to respond more aggressively and avert possible long-term economic decline, President Mbeki's government approved a universal ARV roll-out in August in principle and ordered health officials to finalise an operational plan.
Today, the cabinet said it had noted the Treasury had allocated the resources required to implement the treatment programme. A cabinet meeting scheduled for next week is now expected to give the final go-ahead for the operational plan.