Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - December 30, 2001
Barry Ronge

I didn't want to use the events of September 11. They are unquestionably the defining image of the global year, but they belong to the larger world. I was looking for something closer to home that would exemplify the essence of what we,as South Africans, must contend with. At the end of November ANC MP Ruth Bengu came to my aid with her suggestion that every sexually active person in South Africa be tested for HIV.

What a premise on which to build an epic farce. Recently we have heard countless complaints about census takers who failed to get the right forms to and from the right people within the appointed census period. If they could not manage to get innocuous census forms to all the people in this country, and get them back, how do you think they would manage if they had to draw and transport samples of human blood?

I am sure you sensed the paranoia accompanying the census. People argued about why the forms had to be completed in pencil. They believed it would allow government agents to rub out their answers and replace them with data that better suited some private ANC agenda. There was panic that the information would be passed on to the Receiver of Revenue or other agencies so that they could see who earned too much money, or owned more than one property so that it could be seized and used for informal housing.

I heard a dozen such panicky conspiracy theories, and they arose in response to a simple pencil and paper survey. Can you imagine how people would react if officials came around asking to stick a needle in their arms and draw blood? There would be wholesale chaos.

Indeed, if we take the Census 2001 process and the security surrounding matric exam papers (which were, once again, up for sale this year) as an index of how scrupulously such matters are conducted, how great do you think the panic about misdiagnosis would be? If even one single wrong diagnosis were to be discovered, every other positive diagnosis would be drawn into question and retests would have be done. It could go on for decades.

And where, pray tell, is the money for all this going to come from? The sterile needles, the necessary antiseptics, the transportation and storage of the blood samples, and the qualified staff who would have to perform the tests on what amounts to 90% of the adult population would have to be paid for somehow.

The state of public hospitals like Chris Hani Baragwanath, in Soweto, is parlous. Under-staffed, underequipped and underfunded, they can barely handle their day-to-day operations. Are staff going to be taken from hospitals and clinics to draw blood from the proverbial stone?

Furthermore, what will be done with this statistic once they have it? How long would it take before some religious fundamentalist of whatever faith decides that HIV-positive people would be better off living in their own "community" of similarly "challenged" people?

They would present an eminently rational argument that if people who are HIV-positive are put in a situation where they can have sex only with other "infected" people, the "pure" people would be protected from the risk.

We've heard of people who have been beaten, driven out of their homes with nothing and even murdered because they dared to admit they were HIV-positive. Why would that suddenly change?

When a list of HIV-positive individuals exists on a data base, the information will get out. How could the tireless (and ruthless) protectors of "innocent children" and a "pure, decent lifestyle" resist the opportunity to slip a huge bureaucratic condom over the people who seem to pose a risk?

How long before some bright spark got hold of the idea that it would make things easier if we got the people who had been diagnosed positive to wear the red Ribbon of Care stitched on their sleeves or maybe even tattooed on their arms so that no one could miss it.

Ghettoes, the Group Areas Act, the strict segregation of people who are deemed to be a better, cleaner and more moral than "the infected ones" would be but a few steps away. Did Bengu think of these consequences when she made her suggestion? I guess not, which makes it more than ironic. It's downright pathetic.

Just for the record, there does exist one group of people who have been reliably diagnosed. They are pregnant mothers who believe their children can be saved from the sickness by making treatment available during pregnancy.

The government is fighting them tooth and nail. They have had to resort to street protests and a Supreme Court case, bitterly contested by the Minister of Health, to assert their rights.

So here's my question: if the government refuses to do anything with the statistics they already have, why spend all that money on getting more?All they are likely to do is ignore them even more, a conundrum that, you must admit, sums up the spirit of this year to a T.

011230
ST011205

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