The five winners of Helen Zille’s HIV testing lottery will be announced in Cape Town on Monday.
|||Cape Town - Five people who took part in a HIV testing lottery in February will win R10 000 on Monday.
Western Cape Premier Helen Zille will be drawing the names of those who have won after the launch of a disability pilot project on Monday morning.
The Get Tested To Win campaign launched by Zille caused controversy last year, when the campaign enticed people with a R50 000 cash prize and five R10 000 prizes, to be tested at provincial testing stations.
The campaign, launched on November 25, 2011, during the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children was slammed by the South Africa Medical Association (Sama).
At the time, Sama’s head of public sector committee Dr Phophi Ramathuba urged the public to resist the temptation of being tested for incentives.
She said at the time that the campaign undermined the poor, medical professionals and all the hard work that had gone into de-stigmatising HIV in South Africa.
Ramathuba said the campaign implied HIV was only a problem among the poor. “We all know that this disease is non-discriminatory,” she said.
But the campaign was well received and Zille said a total of 10 631 people had been tested over 10 days.
“The main focus of the campaign was to start addressing women and children’s vulnerability to HIV infection in a meaningful and substantive way. Key to achieving this is for everyone to take responsibility for knowing their HIV status by getting tested,” Zille said before announcing the winners in December last year.
Following the running of a similar campaign in February this year, Zille will be announcing the five R10 000 winners of the HIV campaign lottery draw at 11.30am at the Provincial Legislature building in Wale Street.
Meanwhile, the disability pilot, which will be launched at 9.30am at the Bardale Hall in Emfuleni, will run for a month and will be in the form of a “comprehensive” household survey in communities.
The pilot is in connection with the Uhambo Foundation, an NGO that helps those with disabilities and their families.
The surveys will help in identifying homes with children or youth living with disabilities and will link them to referral systems, where they and their families can receive support. - Cape Argus