Officials say young women between the ages of 15 and 24 have the highest infection rate of the population.
Around 6.8 million people in South Africa are living with HIV.
On the global scale, South Africa remains the country with the highest number of infections, with 12% of the population living with HIV.
The South African National Aids Council's Dr Fareed Abdullah says, "We spend about R23 billion and this is no small problem."
Abdulah says the rate of new infections has seen a gradual change over the past 10 years.
