Controlling AIDS in South Africa

The high and ever-soaring rate of HIV/AIDS in South Africa continues to devastate the country, much as it does the entire Continent. No amount of AIDS-prevention education seems to help in a society given to treating its women as possessions, to be taken at will.

A society where a good proportion of the men see not much amiss in forcing women into non-consensual sex. And where an antidote to AIDS is seen in having sex with a virgin, as under-age as possible, for greater efficacy.

And finally, where the incidence of rape is high and growing even higher, as the very administration of the country denies the obvious.

Even in instances where men are married, they see nothing wrong in doing what seems to come naturally to men in this society; look around for other conquests, the more the better, the more often the better. Whether a new partner is willing or not. It’s become the societal norm for at least half of the population.

It’s such an accepted practise that a contender for the office of President was able to get away with raping an AIDS activist, a long-time friend of his family, a woman who trusted him as one would a respected elder - who is herself HIV-positive. His denial was to defend himself claiming that the woman consented to having sex with him.

That Mr. Zuma was acquitted was a travesty of justice. But his supporters don’t seem much unsettled by the fact he admitted he had sex with the 31-year-old AIDS activist, but it was all right, because he showered right afterward. Monumental ignorance goes hand in glove with the spread of the disease, and the societal problem of the frequency of rapes in the country adds to the roster of the afflicted.

Still, Mr. Zuma is a popular member of the ruling African National Congress.

Now South Africa’s genuinely knowledgeable and combative deputy health minister has been sacked by President Thabo Mbeki. For refusing to resign her post. Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge had the unmitigated gall to attend a conference on AIDS in Spain without presidential approval.

President Mbeki does not take kindly to any criticism against his administration for its lack of action on combating AIDS and the prevalence of rape in South African society. He denies both allegations, vehemently. And does himself no credit by so doing.

Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge had previously fallen afoul of the health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, and had so enraged the minister that she promised she would ‘get her’. And so, it appears, she has.

This is the health minister who functions in her important position by advocating the efficacy of a diet of garlic and beetroot to fight HIV. Whereas her deputy health minister spoke forthrightly and publicly about the country’s health crisis and the dreadful conditions prevailing in some of the country's public hospitals.

After an unannounced visit to a public hospital, Ms. Madlala-Routledge spoke of the conditions she saw there as representing a national emergency, a statement that was rejected outright by Mr. Mbeki.

South Africa has the distinction of having about 5.5 million HIV-positive among her population, one of the most densely-affected populations in the world. Approximately one thousand people die each day of AIDS-related illnesses.

The country’s problems are certain to be ameliorated swiftly with this bold action on the part of its president. Sacking the only high-profile bureaucrat in the administration who recognizes the crisis for what it is, and who is capable of steering the country toward remedial action will certainly solve the problem of too many sick people.

They will all die, the country will become severely de-populated, and who needs well-run hospitals anyway?