Theuns Botha, the Western Cape MEC for health, has said that his department was considering carrying out automatic HIV tests on every person who visited public health institutions in the province. Is this a good idea, or should HIV-testing remain voluntary? Lindiwe Mlandu and Hadlee Simons argue it out...

Lindiwe Mlandu reckons that although we need a radical plan to address the pandemic, riding roughshod over people's rights is not the way to go about it.

I happen to agree with the Provincial Health MEC Theus Botha that we need a radical plan to address the crippling HIV pandemic. However, I disagree with proposed legislation that every patient at every health institution must be tested for HIV.

In this country we all have rights. Murderers, fraudsters and rapists have the right to hide their faces from the public, and yet we want to infringe upon the rights of ordinary citizens.

I fail to understand the reasoning behind this. We have voluntary testing centres across the country. Some people have already been using these facilities whereas the rest choose not to know where they stand. Still, that's their right.

How is forcing people to get tested going to help fight the pandemic? Yes, it would help ease the workload for the medical staff, but largely because many people would stop going to hospitals. They'd rather stay at home than be subjected to unwanted HIV testing.

South Africa has over 5.7 million living with the disease. What are we doing to help these people? We need to come up with a brilliant strategy in dealing with the pandemic. Some of the people who are HIV-positive are infected by people who choose not to know their status. They are not allowed to talk about the disease in their own homes. How are they going approach the topic without being victimised? A lot needs to be done before we can take the fight to the next level.

We all agree that HIV is a serious problem, but forcing people to get tested is not the solution. It doesn't matter how irresponsible people may be — everyone is in charge of their own lives and no one can make those personal decisions on their behalf.

This legislation would only alienate people and do more harm than good. The health department needs to go back to the drawing board and come up with a strategy that's going to work in terms of sending a clear HIV/Aids message to the masses.

Hadlee Simons thinks that, by treating it with kid gloves, we are perpetuating the HIV/Aids pandemic. He argues it is no different to any other illness.

Sometimes we have to sacrifice a bit of freedom for what we think is a better tomorrow. Be it on a small scale, such as working long hours for your company, or on a large scale such as mandatory vaccinations. These sacrifices may seem harsh, but they are for the 'greater good'. This is how we should be thinking about compulsory HIV-testing.

The need to know your status is more important than ever before; I don't need to tell you the statistics. Everyone knows the numbers, and yet the issue doesn't seem to be getting better. This is due to the way we approach HIV-testing. The government tiptoes around the issue of testing as if it were a dirty or shameful secret — contributing to the stigma surrounding the disease.

Why is HIV/Aids given so much sensitivity? Why doesn't this sensitivity apply to TB, cancer, malaria or heart attacks? Is it because they aren't transmitted sexually?

You can jabber on about rights being violated, but what happens when an unwitting carrier passes HIV on to someone else? What happens if a carrier does so knowingly? Whose rights are then being violated?

If the doctor suspects you may have a terminal illness, he or she doesn't wait for you to suggest that you would like the appropriate screening test to be conducted. No-one complains about their rights when they have to undergo a routine prostate exam or pap smear. So, why complain about an HIV/Aids test?

You have to ask yourself: "Am I better off not knowing and living blissfully unaware, or am I better off knowing my status and treating my condition?" Any fears about your status getting out can be allayed by the doctor/patient confidentiality clause.

Ultimately, it's up to the government to dispel the notion that HIV/Aids is a secretive disease and take measures to implement compulsory testing. By allowing people to go for testing on a voluntary basis, the government is contributing to the stigma, because it is implied that only those who have in some way exposed themselves to HIV need to be tested. Compulsory testing will dispel this notion once and for all.

Compulsory testing would also mean that the government would have access to more accurate statistics, and therefore be more equipped to deal with the pandemic. Furthermore, if testing is implemented through public health facilities, an integrated approach to treatment is far more likely.

HIV-testing should not be seen as a punishment; it should not be seen as something which will deter access to healthcare, when, if fact, it is a means to healthcare.

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