Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2009. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - November 15, 2009
The Sport Heroes Walk Against HIV and AIDS saw 12 of the country's sportsmen and women joined by hundreds of supporters in the first leg of the race.
The brainchild of television sports presenter Cynthia Tshaka, the campaign started in 2002 and has raised over R6 million for AIDS hospices throughout the country.
"I was touched by the plight of mothers and children living with HIV/AIDS and decided to rope in sporting heroes to help unite people in the fight against the disease," she said.
Among those who participated were marathon runner Eveline Tshabalala, athlete Ruben Ramolefi and former Orlando Pirates player Bruce Ramokadi.
Tshabalala, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1999, said she was using the walk as training for next year's Comrades and Two Oceans marathons as well as a tool to educate people about the disease.
"I want people to see that life goes on after HIV-infection," she said. "It's been 10 years but I still look as healthy as the next person because of my active lifestyle."
Ramokadi said it was important for sports figures to become ambassadors for the fight against the disease as well as lead healthier lives and encourage others to do so.
"Sports heroes do not realise the influence they have on youth," he said. "We should become ambassadors for ourselves by not abusing alcohol and drugs because that is how a lot people contract the disease."
Ramolefi said the high HIV/AIDS infections are a result of moral degeneration and it was up to them as sports heroes to show people that it is alright to support and show love to those living with the virus.
"I'm running because I'd like the public to see that there is no point in condemning people with HIV/AIDS because sex has become second nature now due to moral degeneration," he said. "People need to know that it can happen to anybody and they must be honest about their status."
The sport heroes engaged children of Soshanguve, north of Pretoria, in sports clinics where they coached them in various sports such as soccer and athletics.
This year's SHWAA was launched last Wednesday at the glitzy Summer Place in Sandton, north of Johannesburg, and was attended by dignitaries such as England cricket legend Ian Botham and AIDS activist Justice Edwin Cameron.
Constitutional Court judge Cameron is one of millions of South Africans living with HIV/AIDS and expressed support for the initiative saying people need to destigmatise the disease so that people do not shy away from taking antiretroviral treatment.
"This disease is manageable and I'm living proof of that, which is why I am a Constitutional Court judge in the country today," he said in his address. "I've been on ARV's for 12 years now and I still take those three tablets everyday."
"I was working at Wits university as a human rights lawyer when I was diagnosed," he said. "What was worse was the shame I felt and the sense of being polluted and contaminated by the disease."
Botham expressed his full support for the initiative saying he had a similar campaign for leukaemia research in England after being touched by children living with the cancer. He and his wife, Kath, organised a walk from Scotland to the England border.
"Once you break down one barrier and get the ball rolling, support will start flooding in," he said. "And before you know it, the infection rate will start decreasing."
Tshaka said she hoped every sports person in the country would commit themselves to using the project as a vehicle to change lives - individually or as federations. The sports figures will end the walk on December 1, World AIDS Day, in Thohoyandou. They will then drive back to Johannesburg the following day.
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