Nelson Mandela to launch HIV/AIDS clinic in Cape Town

Former president Nelson Mandela will be in Cape Town to mark World AIDS Day this year and will be at the launch of South Africa's first public-private HIV/AIDS treatment site.

The launch of the new treatment site, at GF Jooste Hospital in Manenberg, comes against the backdrop of the government approval last week for the roll-out of a national anti-retroviral treatment programme.

Anti-retroviral treatment is already available in the Western Cape to 1 200 people through the state health sector and donor funding, in Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, and at Groote Schuur, Tygerberg and Red Cross Children's hospitals.

The new site in Manenberg is the result of a collaboration between the South African Medical Association and the Nelson Mandela Foundation, which together formed the Tshepang Trust a year ago.

Other functions to celebrate World AIDS Day in Cape Town are:

• The Treatment Action Campaign and the Congress of South African Trade Unions hold a rally at Cape Town City Hall between 10am and 2pm.
• In Jameson Hall at the University of Cape Town between 10.15am and 12 noon, panelists including Archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu and UNAIDS director Peter Piot debate HIV/AIDS lessons learnt from South Africa.
• The City of Cape Town and the communities of Valhalla Park and Bishop Lavis, hold a sports day promoting HIV/AIDS awareness. The event opens with a procession starting at 9am at Valhalla Park sportsfield.
• New Eisleben High School in Terminus Road, Nyanga, holds an HIV/AIDS Awareness Day from 10am.
• Cotlands, a non-profit organisation caring for abandoned and abused children, officially opens the new Cotlands Paediatric Hospice in Somerset West. Events kick off with a parade through Somerset West, which leaves Cotlands, in Kynoch Road, at 10.30am.
• St Luke's Hospice relocates its in-patient care unit for people with HIV/AIDS from Conradie to Lentegeur Hospital.