Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - May 4, 2003
Thabo Mkhize
Now Nontsikelelo Ntsie's husband, Lizwi Dudula, is threatening to leave her because she went public with her status.
The couple from Bhongweni in Kokstad, southern KwaZulu-Natal, have lived together for more than 15 years.
Ntsie, 31, a mother of two, spoke this week of the trauma she and her children had suffered after the Ikhwezi News, Pondo News and the Ilizwi Lethu newspaper published the story. Nevertheless, she agreed to be interviewed and photographed by the Sunday Times.
"The wedding was a dream come true. Everything was perfect. I had wanted to have such a wedding for many years but could not afford it. It was everything I had hoped for, with people singing, a huge braai and gifts, " she said.
Her troubles started a week after the wedding, she said.
"I sent my 13-year-old daughter to town in the morning but when she returned she looked very sad. I was shocked when she asked why I had told newspapers and the whole public I was HIV-positive before telling the family. I did not know what to say," Ntsie said.
She said she had not known that a man who had approached her and asked about her family and her HIV status was a reporter. "I also never gave him permission to disclose my HIV status in the paper," said Ntsie.
Her mother and younger brother and her husband's family did not know she had the Aids virus.
"Most of them were angry with me, asking why I had to tell newspapers before telling them. I wanted to tell them but did not want them to find out the way they did. I'm recovering from TB and I wanted to wait until I got better before I told them. I knew they were going to worry and think I would die.
"Now things are not well at home. My husband says he is going to leave us and he blames me for the story being published," she said.
Dudula, 36, said he was upset that the story had said both of them were HIV-positive because he had never gone for an Aids test or told anyone he was HIV-positive.
"I was happy about the wedding but this is just too much. They have killed me. Now my neighbours are looking at me differently. I also fear for the safety of my family. I heard some people are attacked after disclosing their status. I heard someone was killed in Durban.
"My relatives are asking me why we told the newspaper before informing them. Now I'm thinking of just leaving this place when I get some money," he said, holding back tears.
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