Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - July 08, 2007
Carlos Amato

Zondi needs a player of exceptional courage to tell SA he is HIV-positive.

Ronnie Zondi has gravitas to burn. He's a huge, cliff-shouldered man, with a fatherly voice that seems to burble from the ground beneath his feet.

It's no surprise that Zondi skippered all the PSL teams for whom he defended with distinction - Orlando Pirates, Cape Town Spurs and SuperSport United.

But now he's leading the charge in a far graver contest than any football game: the war against HIV and Aids.

Zondi leads an HIV/Aids awareness campaign mounted by the South African Football Players' Union and he says the local game must stop flinching in the face of the epidemic.

"When Sizwe Motaung passed away in 2001, it was a wake-up call," he says, "but we never took that opportunity to react decisively."

Footballers' sexual behaviour has not changed since his own playing days, says Zondi. He wants clubs and players to unite with the union in attacking the stubborn silence and ignorance that surrounds HIV/Aids in the football community - for the sake of the players, and for the sake of the country.

"Football can and must be used as a vehicle for social change," says Zondi.

Football heroes worldwide tend to be sexually reckless: mix glory with money, youth and constant travel and you get promiscuity.

The difference in SA is the high overall HIV rate and the clear persistence of unsafe sex: many young players have children by more than one woman.

And alcohol abuse - often triggered by the stress of abruptly becoming a public figure - erodes judgment.

"Some of our players are not living the lives we expect them to," says Zondi. "We need to elevate them so they can understand how lucky they are, and how their mistakes affect everyone around them.

"These boys are not being developed holistically. We need to teach them to deal with their sexual lives and their role in society."

Zondi needs a standard- bearer, "a messenger of hope" - a player with the exceptional courage to announce his HIV infection to the country and help explode myths about the disease.

But HIV-positive players are afraid of public hostility - and of being fired.

Dr Ephraim Nematswerani, team doctor at Moroka Swallows and Amaglug-glug, has treated and counselled many HIV-positive players from a number of clubs.

Basing his estimate on the general population's HIV rate among young men, Nematswerani says that roughly one in five or six PSL players has the virus.

Most players who test positive under his care are not yet sick. But sometimes Nematswerani faces a terrible dilemma: a player's performance has dipped due to a weakening immune system, he tests positive and continued intensive exercise would hasten his illness.

But Nematswerani cannot divulge the player's status to his coach. "The response of coaches is that the player is not fit enough, so the training gets more intense, and a vicious circle starts," he says. "I generally suggest a couple of weeks' rest, without revealing anything. But it's a real poser."

Nematswerani's quiet, measured words cannot disguise the emotional intensity of his job.

He's proud of the trust that players invest in him and takes care to ease the trauma of those who test positive. One of the heroes he tells them about is Earvin "Magic" Johnson, the legendary US basketballer who has played and lived triumphantly since discovering and revealing his status.

To emulate Johnson, Nematswerani says, his patients must live healthily and optimistically. The inevitable post-test depression must be fought off at all costs.

Zondi says footballers cannot legally be excluded by their clubs for having the virus. "HIV infection need not rule out a successful playing career."

But that does not mean there is room for denial or complacency, he says. And Zondi has little patience with tricksy, "innovative" Aids-awareness campaigns that skirt the bald facts and have a negligible effect on the youth infection rate.

"We simply cannot hide things anymore. We need to be direct and to the point."

Orlando Pirates boss Irvin Khoza led the way, in his darkest hour, by announcing that his daughter Zodwa - Motaung's ex-wife - had died of Aids.

But lifting the veil of secrecy will not win this war. What will, says Zondi, is a profound change in South African masculinity.

"Aids conferences are dominated by women. But who rapes, who abuses? Men do. The message must be directed at men, and they must hear it."

070708
ST070704