Chairperson, 

South Africa would like to commend the efforts of the United Nations, African Union, Governments of the affected countries and stakeholders against the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak. 

It is through the on-going response of these role players that the tide of the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak has taken a positive turn and that we are seeing a steady decline of cases.

South Africa also wishes to congratulate Senegal, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mali on stopping the spread of Ebola in their countries.

We are encouraged by their efforts and we believe that it is within the realms of possibility for every country to do so. 

Chairperson, 

As we approach the Post-Millennium Development Goals era, we need to think very deeply about the lessons learnt from this epidemic and come up with a long term plan to make our health systems more resilient to deal with such emergencies. 

These include the uniqueness of the epidemic in the affected countries, the role of community awareness and cultural practices, inadequate logistical capacity, the contribution of national leadership and response co-ordination, and the value of resource mobilisation. 

However, of all these lessons learnt, one is clearly standing  out and is of paramount importance – that it is the contribution that weak health systems has made to the devastation faced by this outbreak.

In my opinion, a matter that we need to deal with decisively and comprehensively. 

We may return to the Alma Ata Health For All By 2000 Declaration, made 36 years ago. 
The year 2000 came and went, without the goal of Health for All being realized, for most people of the world, especially, the Third World and the African continent. 

I therefore believe that it is time to go back to the drawing board, more so as this Ebola epidemic has clearly exposed the shortcomings of the national health systems, not addressed since Alma Ata.   

Chairperson, 

I wish to quote Professor Paul Farmer of Harvard University in his hard hitting book entitled “Infections and Inequities: the modern plagues” when he was remarking about the futility of powerful nations putting aside huge amounts of money to counter bio-terrorism. 

He said:

“The proponents of anti-bio-terrorism programmes have it backwards. Instead of pumping more resources into ill-advised and risky bio-terrorism programmes, we should build national and international public health systems that can adequately reduce, detect and respond to natural disease outbreaks and industrial chemical spills. Then, in the unlikely event of terrorism attacks this system will be available to manage the challenges”.

I wish to argue that if we follow this logic and put up very clear systems of rebuilding our local, national and continental health systems, Africa will be in a better position to withstand any of the threats that I mentioned. 

The Post-2015 goal of universal health coverage has to be what we strive to implement. 

When epidemics attack, they mainly affect the vulnerable and the poor. These are the people that have disproportionately poor access to our health systems. We must use our newly found vigour in redesigning our health care systems. I believe universal health coverage is the only method to distribute health resources equitably. 

In support of my argument, I will like to cite the Director-General of the WHO, Dr Margaret Chan at the World Health Assembly in 2012: 

When she said: 

“Universal health coverage is the best that public health has to offer. It is an equalizer between the rich and the poor”.

Finally Chairperson, the biggest investment that can ever be made into the African continent is to make sure that universal health coverage is implemented fearlessly and within a reasonable space of time. 

South Africa deployed a laboratory to assist in the region and we will not withdraw this laboratory once the epidemic is over. 

South Africa will leave it there as a capacity building element for further training of young health professionals in the region.  

With regard to the present Ebola epidemic, I propose that the rebuilding of the health systems in these affected countries must start now. 

In the same vein South Africa will continue the deployment of health workers to Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone under the Cuban Health Worker Programme and under the African Union umbrella.

I thank you for your attention!

Issued by: The Presidency
Pretoria