Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 25 August, 2002
Bonny Schoonakker

This week, Mandela confirmed to the Sunday Times that three young members of his family had succumbed to Aids in the Eastern Cape and that he had visited one of them in hospital and had offered his help.

The relatives who had succumbed were a 22-year-old niece and the two sons of a nephew whom Mandela described as "a prominent relative who is not only a relative but also very close to me".

Mandela said his niece lived near his home town of Qunu, about 22km from Umtata. His nephew's sons "lived quite some distance from the nearest town. All three were in different parts of the Transkei."

Mandela told the Sunday Times: "I became aware of my niece's illness when I came down to the Transkei . . . I learnt that she was in hospital and that she was HIV-positive. I went to see her because I was visiting the Transkei only for that day. I left some money with my brother to treat her.

"A few days after I got back to Johannesburg, I heard that she had died."

Mandela said his nephew had also lost two sons who were HIV-positive. "One was a teacher and I do not know what the other one's occupation was. Although I am not sure of their age, they were both young," he said.

Mandela said he had asked his family on Thursday "if I could disclose their identity but they were not happy about that, so we can't disclose their identity".

"I do not know if they had antiretrovirals. The father is a very well-to-do man so they could not have been short of resources to get antiretrovirals.

"I was aware of the illness of my niece but I was not aware of the illness of the sons of my nephew until after they had passed away," he said.

Mandela also spoke of the scourge's toll on his family at a recent function in Johannesburg to honour Jomo Sono for his role as South Africa's coach during the World Cup soccer tournament. He stunned a VIP audience at the Sandton Hilton Hotel by saying both his and Sono's family had had first-hand experience of the devastation caused by Aids.

Mandela told the audience that he had a high regard for Sono, not only because of his stature in South African soccer but also because Sono was a role model and that "his opinions were extremely relevant" to the country's youth.

Recalling a conversation he'd had with Sono about HIV/Aids "two or three months" earlier, Mandela said Sono had confided to him that: "You don't understand how painful it is for somebody to have HIV/Aids until somebody close to you dies of this pandemic."

Mandela said: " What I want to stress is the devastating effect of Aids on this country. All of us have to stand up and make sure that this matter is widely publicised."

He said the extent of the epidemic was also evident from the obituary columns of the Johannesburg daily newspaper the Sowetan: "There was a time when obituaries covered only a small part of a page. Now it is two pages. If you look closely, you will see how serious the pandemic is."

On Friday, Sono confirmed to the Sunday Times that "two or three people very close to me" were coping with the illness. However, he declined to elaborate, citing the fact that they had children.

Mandela said: "We must be supportive of our relatives and encourage them by all means not to lose hope. The determination to live is as important as the medicines prescribed by the doctors.

"We must encourage our relatives who are HIV-positive to disclose their status so they can be helped and attended to.

"There is no shame to disclose a terminal disease from which you are suffering and HIV is no different. In prison, I suffered from tuberculosis and outside I suffered from cancer of the prostate. I went public in regard to both and nobody shunned me.

"We call upon everybody not to treat people who are HIV-positive with a stigma. We must embrace and love them."

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