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CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Wednesday promised billions of rand to help curb a rampant HIV/AIDS pandemic, reduce poverty and fight crime as the country prepares to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
The host nation has one of the world's highest incidences of murder and rape, with health activists suggesting violent sexual crimes were hampering efforts to combat the country's global worst three position for HIV positive infections.
"The hospital revitalisation programme is targeted for additional allocations, the conditional grants for HIV and AIDS will increase and tertiary health services are prioritised," Manuel said in his budget speech to parliament.
"Together with additional resources for multi-drug resistant and extreme drug resistant tuberculosis and for higher pay for nurses, spending on health services is projected to grow by over 10 percent a year over the next three years," he said.
Government plans to spend an additional 2.1 billion rand ($269.4 million) over this period to combat HIV/AIDS and extend its comprehensive treatment programme aimed at helping one million people with life-prolonging antiretroviral drugs.
Manuel said the government would intensify the fight against crime with additional allocations amounting to over 10 billion rand over the next three years, with 640 million rand allocated in 2010/11 for the deployment of the 31,000 police officials who will help boost security at the FIFA World Cup.
"While acknowledging that there is much to be done to improve law enforcement and courts administration, the statistics show that progress is being made," Manuel said.
Manuel also signalled the government's resolve to help reduce chronic poverty by committing almost 90 billion rand by 2010 and extending the country's social security net, an economic lifeline for millions of poor people.
Expenditure on social assistance and its administration is projected to rise from 75.5 billion rand next year to 83 billion rand in 2009/10 and 89.5 billion in 2010/11, as Africa's biggest economy struggles to uplift the majority of mostly poor black South Africans still mired in abject poverty.
"The progressive extension of social security is a central element of our anti-poverty strategy," said Manuel. (Editing by Marius Bosch, editing by Stephen Nisbet)
