VIRTUOUS LIVING - Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

wait-and-see scenario. A study done in 1991 by the South African government on theimpact of HIV/AIDS at institutional level offered the following observation:[T]he study suggested that the major initial impact would be on the publichealth service. In longer term, the epidemic was expected to pose a threat toongoing economic growth, with some sectors being more seriously affectedthan others (Whiteside and Sunter 2000:87).Whiteside and Sunter (2000) concluded that the epidemic was sustainable within thecapacity of the South African economy from 1991 to 2006. Nevertheless, the problemwas considered to be a “desperately serious one for the society” (Whiteside andSunter 2000:87). The Department of Finance released a Budget Review in 2000. Inthis review were included HIV/AIDS population projections. Although it was statedthat HIV/AIDS impact on the “future population growth and labour force was difficultto predict, as in the case of economic and social impact” (Whiteside and Sunter2000:88), population growth was expected to slow down close to zero percent by2010. The working-age population would decline from 2% in 2000 to under 0,5% in2008 (cf Whiteside and Sunter 2000:88). There would be loss of skilled andprofessional personnel at all levels; political and economic leadership would declineconsiderably; health service resources would be depleted, as would social securitysupport and a diminishing tax base. These predictions call for an integratedgovernment plan in the fight against HIV/AIDS. So far, government’s response hasbeen very poor, and sometimes worrying. This is why moral transformation iscritically necessary to reverse the effects of moral deterioration. This study proposesthat moral decline is one of the major causes of the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS. Thereis general depravity evident in the corruption scandals of some public leaders, and thesame depravity is responsible for the deterioration in sexual morality. Naming theproblem of sexual morality does not mean that one is not compassionate toward thosewho are infected with HIV/AIDS. If we keep silent about the problem of immorality,we shall not succeed in stamping out HIV, since its main mode of transmission isopen sexual relationships. Not to accept a sexual transformation in the face of the HIVepidemic is to negate all the efforts that are sacrificially offered to fight it.In summary, we have seen that the failure to eradicate or reduce poverty, diseases,and ignorance including armed political conflict, aid the spread of HIV with ripple93