19 Apr 2017

Gaborone City Council Mayor, Mr Kagiso Thutlwe said as councillors they had done a lot in ensuring people tested for HIV/AIDS.

Briefing UNAIDS delegation officials, he explained that they had done a lot in this area as they introduced a programme where they went to households and people tested because it was not everybody who could go to the health facilities to test.

Mr Thutlwe, who is also Southern Africa 90-90-90 ambassador said they had been working with a lot of organisations to ensure that a lot of people tested for HIV.

He said they found it imperative to take the initiative because they believed they were closer to the people as civic leaders.

The mayor said the initiative was launched last year and they had a target to test 300 people, but they ended up testing more than they had  targeted.

 He added that they were also working with the National AIDS Coordinating Agency.

The mayor emphasised that they had realised that men did not test in large numbers so in that  regard, they came up with initiatives that would bring men on board and encouraged them to test. 

One of the initiatives, he said, was the Mayor’s Bike Day whereby testing would be taking place on that day. 

He also said there would be mayor’s sport tournament which would be held in July and there would be testing as well.

For his part, global champion for UNAIDS 90-90-90 treatment, Mr Marc Angel thanked the mayor on behalf of UNAIDS for his efforst in the fight against the scourge.

Mr Angel emphasised that they chose to come to Botswana because they were doing a review on 90-90-90, therefore Botswana had done a ‘tremendous progress’ and has launched many ‘excellent’ initiatives not only on a national level, but also at a local level.

He also said he was impressed by team spirit displayed by stake holders, citing the Ministry of Health working with the Ministry of Local Government and rural areas to push forward the 90-90-90 initiative.

The director in the office of special initiatives UNAIDS, Mr Badara Samb said new results would be launched in July, but as of December 2015, the results had been 60-77-81. Therefore, there was no progress in the first 90 and the UNAIDS had decided to promote a movement called Destiny Revolution. Bopa