All South African babies under the age of one will be treated if they test HIV-positive, President Jacob Zuma has announced in a major policy overhaul.
In a speech to mark World Aids Day, he promised more anti-retrovirals - drugs the previous government said were too expensive and potentially harmful.
And he announced he was preparing to take an HIV test himself.
Each year 59,000 babies are born with HIV in a country where 5.2 million people live with the virus.
South Africa is the nation with the highest number of people living with HIV.
Mr Zuma's speech is a marked departure from Mr Mbeki, whose government denied the link between HIV and Aids.
Mr Mbeki's critics have accused him of causing about 300,000 deaths by not rolling out anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) to people with HIV quickly enough.
His government's statements on HIV and Aids and its suggestion that anti-retrovirals could be poisonous contradicted the advice of the world's major health organisations.
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