Premier's views not supported by science
Premier Helen Zille has called for the criminalisation of HIV transmission and compulsory HIV testing. Ms Zille is understandably concerned by South Africa's large number of HIV infections. But her policy prescriptions, well-intentioned though they may be, would likely cause harm if implemented.
The most important question for responding to the HIV epidemic is how do we save lives? Science provides some answers. We know that condoms work if people use them. We also know that HIV-positive people on antiretroviral treatment can have almost normal life-expectancy and they are much less likely to pass on the virus. On the other hand there is not a shred of evidence from anywhere in the world that having special laws that criminalise HIV transmission will help.
Ms Zille believes that criminalisation helps beat HIV epidemics. She asks "Why does South Africa have the largest HIV-positive population in the world? Why have most other countries, including extremely poor ones, succeeded in containing or beating this disease?" I know of no published scientific papers that support her view. There is no relationship between criminalisation and the size of a country's HIV epidemic.
Most countries have never had a large epidemic whether or not they criminalised transmission. But for reasons irrelevant to criminalisation, Southern and Eastern Africa do have large epidemics and will have them for generations to come or until a cure is found. Criminalisation will not remedy this. On the contrary, it might undo efforts to destigmatise the disease and deter people from finding out their status. This would hamper treatment and prevention efforts.
In 2001 a committee of the South African Law Reform Commission published a report that considered criminalising HIV. The committee, chaired by Justice Edwin Cameron, considered a range of expert submissions. It concluded "that statutory intervention is neither necessary nor desirable." It wrote "arguments against intervention override arguments supporting such [a] step."