HIV/AIDS and the South African State

This book does not seek to absolve the South African state of its responsibility to respond to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Moreover it argues that although the state the government before during and after the transition to democracy was aware of and acknowledged the threats - political economic and social - posed by the epidemic it nonetheless chose not to make the epidemic a priority policy issue. As a result it argues that the South African HIV/AIDS case illustrates the tension inherent between a state's ultimate sovereign responsibility to respond and its tactical dependence on external contributors to meet the demands of all of its constituents.