Hon Chairperson, TB is as old as the mountains. It is one of the challenges facing our country as a killer disease. The poor are the most targets more especially the blacks as they are in the majority. Thus poverty contributes a lot to this disease. Therefore, this means that growing our economy will help us fight TB.
We have to come together and reason together so that we can overcome this curable disease because it is curable. Unlike Hiv and Aids, TB is curable. We should boost our immune system by eating healthy diet and do away with liquor. Liquor cannot cure TB, but makes it worse. Therefore, we encourage people not to take a lot of liquor. Many have died because of TB. It is worse with the diabetic people because it also contributes. The microbacteria that cause TB can also be done away with if we come together.
Chairperson, we should breath fresh air, live in a healthy environment and always be clean because cleanliness is next to Godliness.
Besides the normal TB there are two types of TBs, namely, the multidrug resistant and extensively drug resistant. I am proud to say that in Matatiele we are now in a position to treat the multidrug resistant diseases. The extensively drug resistant must is sent to Port Elizabeth. In Matatiele we are lucky because we have good doctors, the likes of Dr Tshepang Nakin and Dr Peter Hene.
Those with extensively drug resistant, as I said, are sent to Port Elizabeth for treatment. It is also in the Eastern Cape. This means that at least we are trying a lot in the Eastern Cape. We must always make sure that our people are made aware of this disease and we encourage them to go to clinics for treatment. They should not dodge because it is their lives. It means we should always be together with our people.
Again, I would encourage the department to go down to the people and look for those may perhaps be affected so that they can be treated early. [Time expired.]