Almost half of the 589 municipal by-elections in South Africa between February 2001 and December 2007 were caused by death of councillors. And most of these deaths were those of people between 25 and 49 years-old. These are some of the findings of an Idasa study of 12 local municipalities in the Western Cape, Northern Cape, Free State and KwaZulu-Natal on the impact of HIV and AIDS on local government.

Death the biggest cause of by-elections

The study suggests a link between death of young ward councillors and the prevalent AIDS epidemic in the country. “This is a profile associated with HIV AIDS impact because generally it takes younger people below the age of 49”, says Idasa’s Governance and AIDS (GAP) programme director Kondwani Chirambo. 

Although Chirambo stresses that the study is exploratory, previous demographic research has established that life expectancy in South Africa has been reduced from 64 to 51 years as a result of the AIDS epidemic. One example is the 2004 Department of Health report called The Democraphic Impact of HIV/AIDS in South Africa: National and Provincial Indicators, which concluded that 70 percent of all deaths in that year in the age group 15 – 49 years were due to AIDS.

Loss of knowledge and skills

Almost all observers are agreed that municipalities depend on appropriate knowledge and skills in order to deliver quality service to local communities. The study warns that loss of skills as a result of AIDS, job migration to other sectors of the economy and increasing demands for service delivery may all ‘conspire to undermine service delivery’.
“Apart from local government losing skills to other sectors it is also suffering a depletion caused by an unexplained illnesses which could largely be associated with HIV and AIDS. And   that might introduce institutional weakness because most of these are the most trained and most experienced councillors”, says Chirambo.

Death of young voters

Death is not only confined to public representatives. Chirambo says during the study they noticed that South Africa is losing 28 000 registered voters every month. And this alone should be a concern to those charged with service delivery and to the future of South Africa’s young democracy. “What would happen is pressure on cemetery space, pressure on clinic services and so on as you have younger people showing up ill. Between 2001 and 2006 we noted that there were 2,6 million voters who died, and the majority of were between the ages of 30 and 49 years. And that has to be quite worrying”.

HIV and AIDS stigmatisation

The reports shows that despite great efforts at awareness-raising, stigma remains a problem. Chirambo says most councillors they spoke to were not comfortable to talk freely about voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) and disclosure of their status. “They felt that disclosure of their status could affect their political careers because most of the public is still not accustomed to dealing with an HIV positive leader. And that also compromises their leadership around HIV and AIDS because obviously they would not be able to disclose if they are sick. And if they did disclose it could possibly affect their effectiveness because they don’t know how the public will react and they might be withdrawn and so on.”

A wellness programme for all

Among the recommendations the report is making, is for municipalities and local communities to encourage regular medical checkups to help with early detection and intervention. And to embark on wellness programmes to help councillors deal more openly with their condition rather than a direct approach which tends to stigmatise.

Follow-up and story ideas

• Research and compile a report on how many by-elections your municipality has had over the last few years and what were the causes of these.
• Find out what your mayor and municipality is doing to encourage VCT, support councillors who are HIV positive, promote access to treatment and prevent premature deaths of councillors.
• Do a snap survey of your readers or vox pop interviews of your listeners to find out how they would react if they heard their ward councillor was HIV positive? And how they would want their neighbours to react if they themselves were HIV positive?
• Consider initiating a regular column or page or slot on ‘Positive Stories’ about people living with HIV in your local community.
• Find a ward councillors who is living openly with and has disclosed their HIV positive status and is willing to write a regular column or appear on a regular slot on ‘Positive Stories’. If you cannot find this councillor in your own municipal area, consider a councillor from a neighbouring municipal area.

Some useful Websites for more information:

Idasa: www.idasa.org.za
Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC): www.elections.org.za
South African Local Government Association (SALGA): www.salga.net
Department of Provincial and Local Government (DPLG): www.dplg.gov.za
Treatment Action Campaign (TAC): www.tac.org.za

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