Inter Press Service - July 13, 2005
Moyiga Nduru

Mandela, about to turn 87, urged young people to use condoms and not to have sex prematurely. "People should delay having sex until they are about 21 years old, and then use contraceptives when they do," he was quoted as saying, Monday.

Mandela also recruited four new ambassadors for his 46664 campaign, a global HIV/AIDS awareness and fundraising drive that takes its name from the prison number he was given during his 27-year incarceration on Robben Island (located 12 kilometres out to sea from Cape Town). These include South African television presenter Leanne Manas.

While Mandela was busy in Johannesburg, Laura Bush was visiting AIDS centres and giving speeches in Cape Town. The United States will spend 149 million dollars to assist HIV/AIDS activities in South Africa this year, the First Lady said.

Besides South Africa, Mrs Bush's one-week itinerary includes Tanzania and Rwanda, countries hard hit by the pandemic.

Both Mandela and Mrs Bush conducted their meetings against the backdrop of a new survey published Monday by South Africa's Department of Health, which said more than 6.5 million of the country's 47 million people could be carrying the AIDS virus. This marks a sharp increase from last year's estimate of 5.6 million people living with HIV.

The survey, which targeted 16,000 pregnant women attending antenatal clinics, also noted a rising HIV prevalence rate amongst women in their late 20s and early 30s. It indicated that nearly 40 percent of women between the ages of 19 and 25 were infected with HIV, while the rate for women in their early 20s and early 30s was put at 30 percent.

Alison Munro, the Pretoria-based AIDS office coordinator for the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference, said poverty lay at the root of the survey's findings. "People are getting infected because they don't have money. They need money to put bread on their table, so they do anything to survive," she told IPS, Wednesday.

In contrast to several other countries in the 13-member Southern African Development Community, South Africa offers grants to its vulnerable citizens. However, Munro said these state allocations were not substantial enough.

In addition, some of the money set aside for social expenditure never reaches the intended recipients. Zola Skweyiya, minister for social development, announced in his budget speech Apr. 5 that about 37,000 public servants would be investigated for fraud and corruption. Government loses about 224 million dollars annually to maladministration of the social grant system, he said.

According to Skweyiya, about 10 million South Africans receive social grants.

Munro said the lack of equality between men and women in South Africa was also spurring the spread of AIDS: "We remain a patriarchal society where women have no say and get infected."

During a speech given Tuesday at the Centre for the Book, Mrs Bush struck a similar chord. "Ending domestic violence, rape and sexual abuse is also essential to fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS. Women who have control over their own lives - including economic power and social respect - have a greater ability to protect themselves against HIV," she was quoted as saying.

"The successful ABC model of HIV prevention that was pioneered in Africa is most effective when both partners are on an equal footing. ABC stands for 'Abstinence', 'Be faithful', and correct and consistent use of 'Condoms'," Mrs Bush added.

"When women are respected and have legal protection in their community, they have more control over their own sexual lives, they have more options to adhere to the ABC model - and more power to convince their partners to adhere to it, too."

The magnitude of the HIV crisis is enormous, with one million children orphaned by AIDS in South Africa alone.

Yet, "We don't have clear messages (about AIDS) from politicians in this country," Munro claimed. "The government is doing a lot, putting money in the AIDS programme. But we don't have the political will to fight the disease."

Her organisation is supporting the work of church initiatives in South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana and Namibia.

"We have a big programme: we are supporting 170 projects in those countries. We also have 22 centres in South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho where we provide anti-retroviral drugs to people living with HIV/AIDS," Munro said.

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