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The Master of Ceremonies
Honourable Minister Songane
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
Sanibonani!

It is a great pleasure for me to share this day with the community of Manguzi, in this beautiful corner of KwaZulu-Natal.

The launch of the malaria control component of the LSDI and the South African RBM strategic plan is a very proud moment for us.

It is even more significant that this launch takes place on 9 November, SADC Malaria Day.

The history of this day is that, following the decision by the African Heads of State in Abuja in April 2000 to commemorate 25 April as Africa Malaria Day, SADC Health Ministers decided to bring this celebration closer to home by celebrating SADC Malaria Day on the second Friday of November each year. This date was chosen because it is around this time that most countries start preparations for the coming malaria season.

It is the first time this year that SADC Malaria Day is celebrated in the region, and we share this moment with Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is a day we will continue to celebrate, to highlight and spotlight the magnitude of malaria as a problem in our region, and the need to address it.

The launch of the LSDI was conceived during a meeting of the SADC malaria managers under the auspices of WHO's Southern African Malaria Control. It is a great pity that my fellow conspirator in this, Hon Dr Dlamini, from Swaziland, was not able to attend this ceremony.

When we conceived this idea in Victoria Falls, we were in very high spirits. We had just heard and witnessed on graphs the major impact that the LSDI has had on malaria control in all three countries of the LSDI.

Such was the level of our excitement that we even promised to launch the LSDI with a cow paid for by ourselves. I am very pleased to see that we were able to fulfil this promise.

Before reviewing the successes of the LSDI, I would like to point out the goals that were set for malaria.

* The malaria component of the LSDI aims to reduce the incidence of the malaria parasite in the Maputo province of Mozambique from 400 per 1 000 to less than 70 per 1 000 within 5 years.

* It aims to reduce the incidence of such infections in the South Africa and Swaziland parts of the region from 250 per 1 000 to 5 per 1 000 within 5 years.

This we believe will have a positive socio-economic impact and improve the quality of life of the citizens in that region.

The impact of the LSDI on malaria control has been very impressive indeed. From all indications we should be able to reach the targets that were set.

Already, there has been a 76% reduction of malaria cases in KwaZulu-Natal province, a 64% reduction in Swaziland, and a 40% reduction in Mozambique since the programme started.

What is even more exciting is that, instead of using the usual method of health workers spraying for the community, in this case the main method of achieving these gains has been community-based programme to spray homes with effective insecticides.

The impact of the programme therefore goes beyond the spraying itself. Because communities are actively involved in improving their own health, we are empowering them. This empowerment will ultimately go beyond malaria. The community will use its newly found self-help skills in fighting other diseases, and in income generation.

This can therefore be part of the start of development, where communities start to appreciate the resources that they have, be it money, labour, and most of all, ideas.

I therefore believe that this programme has helped start a small fire in this community, that can burn and rage as a bigger fire that will be development by the people.

The LSDI also serves as a shining example of regional co-operation and our aim should be to extend this success to other areas of the SADC region. Already the vice-minister of Angola intended to attend this launch. He was going to bring his malaria managers from the districts bordering Namibia and Zambia to see first hand how our LSDI works.

Within SADC, we will do our best to promote the LSDI concept, and I appeal to our partners, especially the WHO, to support such initiatives where interest has been shown, as is the case with Angola.

South Africa is proud to be able to launch its RBM strategic plan. The Roll Back Malaria strategic framework that was formulated by the World Health Organisation put in place a platform for a health sector wide approach to malaria control.

Although South Africa has engaged in a malaria control programme since the early 1930s, malaria cases have been increasing from the middle of the last decade. This has made the malaria control programme rethink its policy. The Roll Back Malaria strategic framework has been a useful guide to assist in developing new strategies for malaria control in South Africa. These strategies will complement the existing malaria control strategies and it is hoped will reverse the upward trend in the number of malaria cases.

Today I am proud to say that South Africa has fulfilled one of the commitments of the Abuja Declaration. We have developed a South African Roll Black Malaria Strategic Plan as the first step to rolling back malaria.

Briefly the key strategies which South African will implement in order to achieve the Abuja targets, include:

* Collecting accurate malaria surveillance data, as this is key to monitoring trends in malaria transmission.
* Setting up early warning systems so that epidemics can be contained and handled efficiently.
* Eradicating the malaria vector population to undetectable levels, through intensifying insecticide spraying and larviciding
* Providing early diagnosis and prompt treatment as this is crucial to effective disease management.
* Strengthening capacity development of malaria control personnel, this includes scientists, health care workers and malaria control managers.
* Scaling up inter-country malaria control collaborations through cross-border malaria control initiatives.

The Department of Health is confident that South Africa, through its implementation of health sector wide control strategies, will achieve the Abuja targets and roll back malaria in South Africa.

Before I conclude, ladies and gentlemen, it would be amiss if I were not to express my sincere gratitude to the Province of KwaZulu-Natal, and the LSDI for assisting the national department in organising this successful event. Your tireless efforts were not in vain. In this case my wish literally did become a horse, and I am pleased that we have once again been able to meet to celebrate success.

I therefore wish the Malaria Regional Malaria Control Commission and the LSDI further success in the future.

Let us roll back malaria from Manguzi, from Maputo province, from Mozambique and Swaziland and ultimately out of SADC.

I look forward to the spraying session that will symbolically launch the malaria component of the LSDI.

Issued by Ministry of Health

9 November 2001