14 Dec 2015

The Minister of Defence, Justice and Security, Mr Shaw Kgathi, says there is no evidence to show whether prisoners contract HIV while in prison as HIV testing is not compulsory upon admission to prison.

Answering a question in Parliament, Mr Kgathi said HIV/AIDS affected all sections of society, including prisoners. He said the extent of the problem in prisons could only be explained through statistics. 

He said out of a daily average of 4 100 prisoners as at November 30, 690 prisoners were HIV positive and 333 of them were enrolled in the anti-retroviral programme.

Mr Kgathi said the Botswana Prisons Services in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, NACA, Tebelopele and other stakeholders had various programmes aimed at combating the spread of HIV/AIDS in prisons. 

He said emphasis was on prevention measures that included education campaigns conducted by prison officials and other stakeholders

He said there were two centres for disease control in Gaborone and Francistown established to address the spread of HIV/AIDS. 

He added that they offered voluntary HIV testing and counselling, prevention of mother to child transmission, ARV therapy, CD4 monitoring and safe male circumcision. 

Mr Kgathi was responding to the Member of Parliament for Selebi Phikwe West, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse, who wanted to know whether some prisoners get infected by HIV while in prison.

Mr Keorapetse had also wanted the minister to explain the state of HIV /AIDS in prisons as well as state government efforts to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS in prisons. Ends