In this audio report in English and isiXhosa, Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane says there's a need for religious communities to involve themselves in HIV/AIDS and for government to provide better leadership on the pandemic. Ndungane recently called on the health minister to resign and for wrangling over the Global Fund on AIDS, TB and Malaria to end so that funds can reach those who need them most.

The United Nations' Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria is committed to ensuring that money reaches community-based and non-governmental organisations as much as it also funds government departments and agencies. This commitment is based on the belief that NGOs and faith-based organisations are strategically placed to deal first-hand with the impact of these diseases. So how does the Global Fund plan to distribute its? Khopotso Bodibe attended a briefing addressed by the chairperson of the Fund, Dr Richard Feacham.

A recent study conducted among a sample size community of 90 pharmacists in the Western Cape indicates that over half of them - 60 percent - diagnose and treat sexually transmitted infections. This, despite the fact that legislation forbids pharmacists - as dispensers of medication - from treating disease as they are not trained to do so. Kim Ward is the researcher who carried out the study. In this report she tells Khopotso Bodibe that even though pharmacists are not trained to treat STIs, people opt for their services because it is affordable and there are seldom long queues.