02 Aug 2021

There are currently no plans to review Job Effectiveness Descriptions for district AIDS coordinators (DACs) because their duties have not changed, Parliament heard recently. 

Answering a question in Parliament, Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Mabuse Pule, said there was need for a multi-sectoral approach and active involvement of all stakeholders in the HIV/AIDS response when it was declared a national emergency. 

That, he said, therefore required a coordinating office in the form of the office of district commissioner who coordinated all government programmes at district level, adding that it led to the office of the DAC housed under the supervision and administrative support of the district commissioner. 

He added that in order to ensure and enhance a multi-sectoral response to HIV/AIDS pandemic, Primary Health Care Services (PHCS) were initially under the then Ministry of Local Government until 2010 when some services were relocated to the health ministry through Presidential Directive CAB/188/2009. He said services that were relocated to the health ministry included health education, curative health care, community health and family health care. 

However, he said HIV/AIDS coordination and environmental health services remained with the local government ministry. 

Furthermore, Mr Pule said management of non-communicable diseases or COVID-19 response was not the mandate of the DAC office because they fell under the National AIDS and Health Promotion Agency. 

“As public officers, they can still progress beyond D3 subject to availability of positions across ministries and departments. 

The current structural arrangement does not denote any plight whatsoever and will continue to be reviewed as the situation may dictate going forward,” he said. 

Maun East MP, Mr Goretetse Kekgonegile had asked the minister to explain professional placement and progression of DACs and why they were housed and supervised by district commissioners at district level but professionally filled under the local government ministry corporate services and working under NAHPA. Ends