Sunday Times, South Africa - July 9, 2000

As we report elsewhere in this newspaper, the shocking truth about AIDS in South Africa can no longer be denied. Death certificates filed with the Department of Home Affairs show beyond doubt that young South Africans are being cut down in the prime of their productive lives in greater numbers than ever before.

The fact that tens of thousands of South Africans who died in the 19992000 period were younger than 50 years old is now irrefutable.

Among both men and women, these figures represent a dramatic increase on the figures of 1990, a short decade ago, and they demand an explanation. The conclusion that scientists such as Dr William Makgoba have reached is that AIDS is the chief cause of this massive change in the way South Africans are dying.

These statistics rightly do not distinguish between black and white or between rich and poor. They simply tell us that our young people are in peril, and they demand that action must be taken.

The Minister of Health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, announced this week that the government was embarking on a fresh advertising campaign in KwaZulu-Natal, where the disease is especially prevalent. Billboards will feature the President saying: "AIDS is not someone else's problem. It's my problem, it's your problem."

This stark statement is exactly the message that needs to be conveyed to South Africans. Those who believe that they are somehow immune or insulated against the disease are living in a fool's paradise.

Even those who are indifferent to the plight of their countrymen and cynically take only their narrow material interests to heart will be affected by this disease.

It will affect the availability of public services such as health and education, it will worsen our shortage of skilled labour and it will undermine the morale of our youth, on whom we depend for the future.

Mbeki's billboard statement, like the approach taken by Uganda in fighting the disease, is correct in its acknowledgement that it is up to South Africans - all South Africans - to save our nation from this scourge.

When he addresses the conference tonight, Mbeki will encounter much hostility, most of it arising from his decision to appoint a panel to investigate AIDS in Africa and the link between HIV and AIDS.

He has been harshly criticised by the scientific establishment for this move, and he will no doubt be harshly criticised again at this week's conference. This criticism is justified insofar as it asks why Mbeki has raised for debate a matter which has been settled in the eyes of all but a handful of congenitally critical scientists.

But it is not justified insofar as it posits that Mbeki himself has propagated the view that HIV does not cause AIDS.

Neither he nor Tshabalala-Msimang have ever denied the link between HIV and AIDS, and nor have they ever denied that AIDS represents a public health crisis that demands a special response from the government. On the contrary, in a television insert that has been run repeatedly over the past year, Mbeki has pleaded with the youth to use condoms and to take the AIDS crisis seriously. He should not be begrudged this because he has overzealously demanded a re-examination of scientific orthodoxy.

Mbeki must use tonight's platform to dispel once and for all the myth that South Africa is not serious about dealing with AIDS, and he must begin to shift the debate away from the abstract scientific logjam that will persist, if for no other reason, out of the defence of wounded pride.

The conference represents a unique opportunity for Mbeki to awaken all South Africans to the extent of the AIDS crisis. He must grasp the nettle.

A crooked and shameful act

It is now a blunt and unsavoury fact that Germany, not South Africa, will host the 2006 World Cup, and the cries of foul have been loud and pained.

There have been those who have blamed the powerful North for arrogance towards the South. But it must be remembered that South Africa won the support of the US in its bid and that the Europeans, like the Africans, stuck with their continental countrymen.

More worrying was the absence of support from Asia, which has many ties with South Africa. The only explanation for Asian indifference to South Africa can be that they soullessly chose to place their economic interests before those of the game of football.

Of even greater concern was the decision by delegates from the Arab world to side with Germany, again apparently out of naked economic opportunism. This decision raises questions about how much success we have had in establishing bonds between ourselves and Arab nations despite years of courtship.

But the greatest single factor in South Africa's failure to win was the decision by Charles Dempsey, a New Zealander, to abstain from voting in the final round.

He did this in defiance of his government, his football federation and the vigorous sporting bonds between his region and this country.

It was a shameful and crooked act of cowardice that sticks in the craw.
000709
ST000703

Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2000. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 2000. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .