03 Dec 2007: ISS Today: Opening the Debate on HIV/AIDS and the Armed Forces in South Africa

3 December 2007: Opening the Debate on HIV/AIDS and the Armed Forces in South Africa

 

There has been a significant change in the South African Government’s policy on research on HIV/AIDS, characterised by a willingness to learn, more consultation and engaging in open debate on issues that are still vexing many nations that adopted this route several years ago. This new approach includes authorising the armed forces to begin their own sectoral investigation in which they seek answers on how others have fared in their new policies on recruitment, what to do with members that test positive for the HIV virus whilst already in service and, even, investigating the general practice of how to prepare and deploy troops on peacekeeping missions against the challenges posed by HIV/AIDS. This is happening in parallel to other government initiatives in which the Ministry of Health and other national structures are engaging professional, technical and skilled bodies as well as Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and other civic groups to provide contributions to the emerging, comprehensive, national HIV/AIDS policy.

 

The message coming from the South African Government and the Armed Forces, is that the diverse knowledge and partial answers to some of the related challenges that are located in the research community are now urgently needed for purposes of guiding and informing the evolving policy loop. Below we summarize the event that has provided the clearest signal of breaking with the past and entering a new consultative era.

 

On Monday 12 November 2007, the South African Deputy President, Pumzile Mlambo-Ncquka, accompanied by the Deputy Minister of Defence, Maleluke George, officially opened The First International Department of Defence HIV/AIDS Conference at St. George’s Hotel and Conference Centre, located in Centurion near Pretoria. The event was described as “groundbreaking” by the official host, Surgeon-General of the Department of Defence, Lieutenant General V.I. Ramlakan, which, if anything, was an understatement. The purpose of the gathering was described as, ‘the SANDF seeking to learn from the experience of others about the challenges from the HIV/AIDS pandemic for force preparation, combat readiness and security as well as to determine what to expect in different peacekeeping theatres.’

 

While the audience was primarily made up of personnel from the South African Military Health Service (SAMHS), with over three hundred in attendance, there was also a sprinkling of outsiders. A strong regional military contingent of senior medical officers from Angola, Botswana, Tanzania, Namibia, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe was also in attendance. The audience also included people from international and regional institutions, academia and other networks.

 

The conference speakers presented well-researched papers on: A global understanding of HIV/AIDS and its challenges towards militaries in conflict and peacekeeping operations; the impact of HIV/AIDS on the effectiveness of military forces; HIV/AIDS and human rights; emerging policy related questions around recruitment, retention of affected soldiers and termination of employment due to severely compromised CD4 counts; the impact of HIV/AIDS on the ability of the South African Police Service (SAPS) to execute its mandate; and the SAMHS ARV roll-out - challenges and lessons learnt. The conference also included an hour of round-table discussion on the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations and African Union’s HIV testing policies and the implications thereof for troop contributing countries.

 

Several African militaries have extensive experience in collaboration on the challenges posed by HIV/AIDS. That acquired experience of having to develop appropriate policies to respond while maintaining the required capacity on operations is available as reference. Based on our own research on the MilAIDS Project, we have gathered useful insights into the complex relationships between HIV/AIDS and the Armed Forces from empirical data in five southern Africa armies, published in 2006 as The Enemy Within: Southern African Militaries’ Quarter Century Battle with HIV/AIDS. For example, this research has revealed the conundrum faced by militaries when undertaking recruitment and having to deal with candidates that are HIV positive. The same work has also provided us with an understanding of how commanders have responded when faced with troops who fall victim to the virus, either in the camps or within peacekeeping environments. More recent research has provided pointers on how to deal with terminally ill soldiers who require home-based care and medical support that has to be delivered to their doors. In May 2007 the ISS hosted a seminar examining the implications of ‘rolling out’ mass male circumcision and how this is likely to affect members of the Military and the Police. The ongoing research has shown challenges of cultural inhibitions, differences in religious influences as well as raising concerns around the possibility of diluting the condomization message that appears to have become accepted. All these findings were shared amongst policy makers and practitioners, effectively contributing to policy formulation, and are available to the new entrants into the debate, the South African Armed Forces.

 

Taking contributions from MilAIDS and the contributions of invited presenters, the interactions before over 300 soldiers showed a new attitude of an organisation willing to learn lessons form others.

 

The impetus created by the first international conference on HIV/AIDS by the DoD and the SAMHS must not be allowed to just wither and disappear. This conference must be viewed against the background of almost 30 years since the first cases of HIV/AIDS were discovered within the South African military ranks during the early 1980s. It demonstrates a watershed departure from the characteristic oversensitivity and institutional defensiveness that has almost become a norm. This approach has placed the military outside the mainstream debate and research, thereby diminishing the potential of the SANDF to play a leading role amongst African militaries in addressing the complex challenges related to HIV/AIDS. On its part, Government, through the DoD and the SANDF, appears determined to make up for lost ground. The challenge is for the research community to reciprocate.

 

Martin Rupiya, MilAIDS Project, Defence Sector Programme, ISS Pretoria