The Civil Society Structure has been revived after various stakeholders met at the Civic Centre on Thursday, 10 May.
This came as the structure had been stagnant in the past year.
The Civil Society is geared to create a workable plan to combat the scourge of HIV/Aids and tuberculosis (TB) and will respond in a positive way to challenges that are faced by Msukaligwa Municipality and the Gert Sibande District as a whole.
It consists of different groups in the community, including churches, all government sectors, sex workers, lesbian, gay and bisexual, intersexual and transgender (LGBIT) and the community at large.
The general objective will be:
- To reduce the incidences of HIV and TB.
- Assist government departments in the delivering of all public services according to their mandates.
- Build alliances to fight HIV and TB.
- Act against gender-based violence.
- Ensure communities understand the diseases.
The structure will hit the ground running with specific goals in mind to:
- Build networks to address poverty.
- Eradicate HIV and TB stigmatisation.
- Get communities to know their health status.
The Civil Society will meet quarterly and is confident they will begin to show improvement in their fight from the beginning of July.
“We want to ensure a sense of belonging to all citizens of Msukaligwa and provide capacity development. This can only be done through pro-active initiatives by the council to ensure that the community receives quality healthcare,” said the co-chairman, Mr Sifiso Mkhatshwa.
