IFP Calls for Dedicated HIV/AIDS Subject At School

MRS PATRICIA LEBENYA MP
ACTING NATIONAL CHAIR OF THE IFP YOUTH BRIGADE

05 June 2007

The Inkatha Freedom Party's acting National Chairperson of the IFP Youth Brigade, Ms Patricia Lebenya MP, today called on Government and the Education Department to consider creating and instituting a special school subject on HIV/Aids at school level.

"The HIV/Aids epidemic has claimed many lives in South Africa and the devastating disease will continue claiming many more if we don't start by providing proper education to our youth," said Ms Lebenya.

"An excellent preventative measure would be if we had a dedicated school subject on the matter, so that we can teach pupils from a young age not only about sex education, but also about HIV/Aids prevention," said Mrs Lebenya MP.

Furthermore, the acting National Chairperson of the IFP Youth Brigade said that another issue, which needed urgent Government intervention, was the increasing levels of violence on school grounds.

"The IFP has noted with shock the increasing number of deaths of learners by other pupils. In the last couple of weeks we had school ground deaths at provinces around the country.

"This is a very serious issue and IFP calls on the Department of Education to work towards making schools a safer place for all of our kids. We also call on South Africa at large to work towards decreasing levels of violence within all of our communities," concluded Mrs Lebenya.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Ms Patricia Lebenya MP: 0781863619
Liezl van der Merwe: 083 611 7470