ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the three main phases of AIDS policy making that are discernable during the Mandela administration. The first phase of public policy making on HIV and AIDS under the Mandela government effectively came to an end in the course of 1996. Indicators of the shift to a second phase of AIDS public policy making include: the demonstrable failure to effectively implement the National AIDS Plan (NAP) of 1994; the move from the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) to Growth, Employment and Redistribution Programme (GEAR), and the emergence of an AIDS policy environment defined by public scandal. The NAP reflected the broad policy goals of the RDP by emphasising a new division of responsibility for health between the different levels of government and adopting an intersectoral approach. The RDP concept itself will in the long run do the most to minimise the impact of the epidemic.
