Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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United Press International - Friday, 1 June 2001
The child's foster mother, Gail Johnson, said he died peacefully in his sleep early Friday.
Mandela described the boy's death as "a great pity," adding that Nkosi was "an example in showing how one should handle a disease of this nature."
"Although it must be a relief for that wonderful woman (the boy's foster mother) nevertheless we are sorry about it," Mandela told South Africa's Independent newspaper.
"We are faced with a serious pandemic which has taken away many of our people."
About 10 percent of the South African population are infected with the HIV virus.
Family friends said the boy weighed less than 22 pounds when he died at his home in a Johannesburg suburb.
Nkosi became one of South Africa's youngest and best-known AIDS activists, with his fight to be allowed to attend school with healthy children his own age drawing a spotlight to society's treatment of people with the disease. Nkosi petitioned the nation's parliament, prompting lawmakers to enact new legislation forbidding discrimination against people with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Nkosi, who was born HIV-positive, became internationally famous with a speech at the 13th International AIDS conference in Durban last year asking people not to shun those with the disease.
Gail Johnson took him into her Johannesburg home after the boy was taken from his mother, herself an AIDS victim, when he was 2.
Nkosi collapsed in December with AIDS-related brain damage and viral infections and Johnson said he had been unable to eat solid food for several months. In February Nkosi was joined by friends, family and celebrities in marking his 12th birthday, a day many thought he would never see.
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