Positively hopeful
This is a time of possibility. If the new “test and treat” approach to the treatment of people with HIV is put into practice, it has the potential to stabilise their ability to live productively, before they get too sick to be able to work.
It means your CD4 count doesn’t have to drop below 500 for you to access antiretrovirals.
The Health Department says this will contribute to the NDP 2030 goal of boosting life expectancy to 70 years.
The trouble when things get done right, it’s hard not to think who or what was preventing things from being done right in the first place?
Particularly when so many people have been harmed by previous bad policy.
Constructive ideas about Grahamstown were shared in two meetings in the past week.
The inaugural Grahamstown Conversation provided a useful forum for several local organisations to share strategies for making the town work. We share a full report on page 14 of this edition.
Also putting their ideas on the agenda this week was the Cacadu Development Agency, whose proposals include developing the Grahamstown airport, fixing Dakawa Arts Centre and turning waste into energy. Read about this on Page 22. The news that the Department of Water and Sanitation has placed restrictions on water extraction from the Orange River concerns Grahamstown – even if not immediately.
Reduced flow due to drought means a ban on Orange River water for irrigation and certain other uses.
Grahamstown receives a significant amount of its water supply from the Gariep Dam on the Orange River via the Orange-Fish-Sundays River Scheme.
There has been no announcement of a problem for us regarding this important water source which we access via Glen Melville dam – but sooner or later it must affect this town.
It could be that the new councillors face one of the toughest terms yet, when it comes to providing for the needs of Makana’s residents.
Another possibility that will affect more than only students is that Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande will, together with the think tank he has assembled, find a solution to the funding of post-school education.
Grahamstown is a system that could easily become even more out of balance than it is, and what happens to Rhodes University affects Grahamstown because it’s a huge part of the town’s economy.
The University hosted Highway Africa – the continent’s biggest gathering of journalists and media practitioners. In a session to discuss making media sustainable, it was an eye opener to realise that the first obstacle to sustainability in some African countries is being allowed to operate freely as journalists at all.