Sunday Times, South Africa - Sunday, January 10, 1999
Bareng-Batho Kortjaas
Gugu Dlamini, 36, was killed by a mob because she is alleged to have degraded her community by confessing that she had the AIDS virus.
Now her friend Musa Njoko is living in fear after receiving threatening calls warning her that she will follow Dlamini "to the grave" if she does not stop urging those who are silent about their HIV status to go public.
Njoko, 26, said she had a "dreadful" Christmas after she received the first death threat on December 24 while still mourning Dlamini's brutal killing in KwaMancinza, near Durban.
"A man called me and said it was not my problem that people had contracted the virus. He said because I had a big mouth about AIDS, I was next on the hit list," she said.
Njoko, an HIV co-ordinator for Eskom, said she did not take the first call seriously. "But then the calls continued on a daily basis and with different voices. I realised my life was in danger. I am now living in fear.
"What makes it worse is that they say nasty things - like I became HIV-positive because I was a prostitute, slept around with white men and deserved to contract the virus because I was promiscuous.
"This is driving me crazy, more so because it shows their ignorance about AIDS," she said.
As scared as she is, Njoko - who was diagnosed as HIV-positive in 1994 - is determined to continue her crusade.
"Gugu's death has given me more courage in the fight against HIV and AIDS. I will continue giving hope to those who are infected. I suspect the callers are infected, but are finding it hard to accept," she said.
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