Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2008. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - October 26, 2008
Claire Keeton
Clegg has even written a song for the campaign - A Man Knows - challenging men to have the courage to take the test and choose life.
Springbok rugby hero Bryan Habana, Paralympian gold medal winner Natalie du Toit, former Bafana Bafana captain Lucas Radebe, Olympic silver medallist Khotso Mokoena and Paralympian sprinter Oscar Pistorius are among the sports stars who have teamed up to support the initiative.
The campaign aims to test 30000 South Africans in five provinces in the first week of November.
Only about one million South Africans, fewer than one fifth of those who are HIV-positive, know their status.
Clegg says his song comes from the traditional concept that: "A man is a man by means of other men. When you have a problem or a very deep decision to make ... you select key men in your life and you sit down and have a beer and chat."
He says that in his song a man who knows he must take an HIV test says to his group of men: "I'm asking you to encourage me to go and face this day."
Clegg performed his anthem at the launch of the A Man Knows campaign in Johannesburg this week.
"I'm connected to migrant labourers in Johannesburg, and many feel that if you have Aids you are unlucky and that it is not really your responsibility.
"This campaign is saying to men: æYou have decided to sleep with somebody. You must take responsibility and find out your HIV status."
A Man Knows targets the emotions that act as a barrier to testing.
Du Toit, who took an HIV test at the launch, says: "I think everybody has a fear in life ... What's important is to get out there and to treat it. If you're disabled, it's to get the physiotherapy help and to get stronger and be a better person.
"With HIV and Aids, it's also to go out there and get help - to go on antiretrovirals where possible, really just so that you can go out and have a good life.'"
The HIV/Aids treatment organisation Right to Care and the Society for Family Health, through its testing arm New Start, will be running the campaign in KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, the Eastern Cape and the Northern Cape.
Right to Care chairman Dr Ali Bacher says serious measures are needed to ensure that all sexually active people know their HIV status or "South Africa could end up with a catastrophe".
The Department of Health's HIV director Dayanand Loykissolal says the department offers HIV testing at 4623 primary health facilities and 427 non-medical sites.
At the launch he said: "Too often we do not ask enough of men, as women take the lead in HIV and Aids. We encourage men to take the first step - start with yourself."
The US President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief is funding the testing drive, which is also backed by non-governmental organisations and companies.
South Africans who take an HIV test are eligible to enter the Discovery Health and Sunday Times HIV testing competition, Right to Know, and stand a chance of winning R100000.
# To find out more about the Right to Know competition, visit: www.righttoknow.
To find the HIV testing site closest to you, SMS HIV and your post code to 31771 or call 0800 212 686.
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