Government’€™s failure to prevent mothers from transmitting HIV to their babies means that South Africans should get down and start such programmes themselves, says Pan Africanist Congress MP Patricia de Lille.

“We need to say that we’€™ve had enough. Let’€™s do it ourselves,” urged De Lille at an event in Durban on Friday at an event to mark International Children’€™s Day.

“Why is government failing to implement the mother-to-child programme when the drug [nevirapine] is being offered free of charge?” asked the fiery MP.

“Why are they offering a mother-to-child transmission programme (MTCT) at only five percent of clinics? Some even argue that these children should not be saved because who will look after them when they are orphaned. But we are not God. We can’€™t decide who should live or die.”

She confessed that “some days I wonder if we are making any impact [on the lives of children]” and said what was needed were large scale efforts that could “make remarkable impact”.

“No nation deserves to be called a nation if it cannot introduce a mother-to-child programme,” declared De Lille.

Nevirapine manufacturer Boehringer Ingelheim has offered SADC governments a free supply of the recently registered drug for five years.

But so far, only the Western Cape and Gauteng have started to offer the anti-retroviral drug nevirapine to pregnant HIV positive women at selected hospitals. The drug can reduce the transmission of HIV from mothers to their babies by up to 50%.

Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang stalled the process of offering nevirapine at 18 sites countrywide by deciding that the MTCT programme had to get Cabinet approval before going ahead.

To date, the minister has failed to present Cabinet with a report on the MTCT programme despite the fact that all provinces were told to be ready to implement the programme by 1 April.

Gauteng decided to go ahead with it’€™s programme two weeks ago, while healthworkers speaking off the record in two other provinces revealed that they were deeply frustrated and angered by the unnecessary delay.

An estimated 70 000 HIV positive babies are born in South Africa every year.