A white Afrikaans-speaking couple will have something special to celebrate this Christmas after adopting a black HIV-positive orphan. Maropeng, 4, will join her adoptive parents, Anna and Heinrich Makkink of Hillary, Durban, at the dinner table on Christmas Day. Her adoption papers were signed by the Makkinks on Anna s
FISHING and food company Irvin & Johnson could open the way for South African companies to do voluntary but anonymous HIV testing of workers without first having to get court approval. In a potentially precedent-setting case, I&J this week asked the Labour Court in Cape Town to allow companies to provide testin
This article forms part of the consumer education programme of the Life Offices Association First of all, if you are living with HIV, life insurance policies are available to you in South Africa . Cover is provided according to widely accepted indicators that determine the stage of your HIV infection. Your insuranc
Ex-president commends Anglo American and De Beers for their Aids awareness programmes, writes Hilton Shone Former president Nelson Mandela has praised the efforts of business, and the mining industry in particular, in fighting poverty and HIV/Aids. Poverty is the greatest assault on human dignity and unemployment makes
THIS week s Aids research report by the Nelson Mandela Foundation represents a milestone in the growth of our knowledge about the epidemic. No longer must we depend on extrapolations based on assumptions about sexual behaviour. We now know the raw and awful truth based on scientific evidence. Researchers obtained actua
FORMER President Nelson Mandela has called on public officials to go to the field to undo myths and help prevent the spread of HIV/Aids. He said public representatives should talk to their constituencies on how to prevent Aids and make them aware about cocktails which can help to treat the disease. Mandela said the rel
MEDIA mogul and talk show host Oprah Winfrey splashed out R2-million for five amateur sketches by Nelson Mandela at a glittering banquet hosted by the two at which they announced a star-studded Aids benefit concert on Robben Island next year. Former President Mandela and Winfrey launched Mandela SOS at the Kirstenbosch
NELSON Mandela has urged heads of government to lead the fight against Aids and to follow the example of the presidents of Uganda , Senegal and Botswana . Speaking at an Aids Day function in Crossroads, Cape Town, yesterday, he said: One of the most important things .
HEATHER Reynolds is known as Gogo of the Valley in the township of Mpumalanga near Pietermaritzburg, where almost half the population is HIV-positive. In 1994, Reynolds used her life savings to set up God s Golden Acre in Cato Ridge in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. Today she cares for 45 orphans in the centre and another
Because his mother was away from home when he was born, this child may be HIV-positive. KGOTSO Hlalele was born 50km too far south. As a result, there s a good chance he is HIV-positive. A premature baby, he arrived at Sebokeng Hospital near Vereeniging because his mother was away from her home at the time. If he had
SOUTH African-born Charlton Athletic defender Mark Fish this week donated œ10 000 (about R147 000) to a South African-run charity in London dedicated to easing the plight of Aids orphans in KwaZulu-Natal. Fish challenged other South African football players in the UK, including fellow Bafana Bafana teammates Lukas Rade
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 01 December 2002
Sure, we have Mother s Day, Valentine s Day and Heritage Day. But today, World Aids Day, is different. This international day could save your life ... Thandiwe McCloy investigates We ve heard it all before, right? I mean, how many more times can we hear an Aids speech or have a red ribbon flashed at us ? Do we really n
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 01 December 2002
We all talk a lot about HIV and Aids - but do we really understand what they are? And is Aids the same as HIV? Read on... HIV The Human Immunodeficiency Virus is not Aids, but the virus that causes Aids. It s like any other virus, except that it attacks the immune system itself. The virus gets into the body through blo
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 01 December 2002
Michelle Mabunda has been HIV-positive for three years. But she s not letting negativity take over her heart and life - her spirits are high and she s moving on in a bright and positive way I used to be a very wild teenager, says Michelle, 19. I had lots of boyfriends and they didn t always wear condoms. Michelle fell
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 01 December 2002
loveFacts There is no cure for Aids. We know this. Even though there are drugs that can extend the lives of HIV-positive people, not many in South Africa can afford them and these drugs are not yet available at government clinics. But being HIV-positive doesn t mean it s the end of your life. There are many HIV-positiv
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 01 December 2002
Mawande Jubasi
This week, Vusi Nzinisa, 17, and his siblings, Qinile, 15, Nkosingiphile, 13, and two-year-old Sinomusa, buried their father in the front yard of their northern KwaZulu-Natal homestead. Their father, Lion, died of an Aids-related illness two weeks after their mother, Philile, succumbed to the virus. The children, from
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 01 December 2002
Bonny Schoonakker
SCIENTIST Carolyn Williamson is stumped by an intriguing aspect of Aids research in South Africa : why do women play such a leading role in the field? The March edition of the Medical Research Council s Aids Bulletin named five local women who are at the forefront of the search for an HIV/Aids vaccine. Both William
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 01 December 2002
Karen Van Rooyen
Two young brothers were reunited for a day thanks to a caring Christmas gift from workers who sacrificed their own party to give a treat to children affected by HIV/Aids. Brothers Eben , 11, and Ruben Blanckenberg, 8, last saw each other in February this year. They were separated when their HIV-positive mother died.
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday, November 24, 2002
Ilse Fredericks
School pupils are opening their hearts to children who have been affected by HIV/Aids by raising funds and supplying them with food and medication. Several schools in Pietermaritzburg are taking part in the Children Helping Children project, which was launched by the child rights NGO Children in Distress (Cindi) two ye
RAP and R&B stars P Diddy and Alicia Keys have come out fighting in the campaign against HIV/Aids in Africa. Speaking at a news briefing ahead of their concert in Cape Town s Green Point Stadium yesterday , the two preached Black Consciousness and self-respect as a way of fighting the scourge. Throughout the world
THE mortality figures released this week by Statistics South Africa are a timely warning about our lifestyle as a nation. Based on a 12% sample of 279 581 recorded deaths out of a total of two million between 1997 and 2001, the study s methodology is not in doubt, nor is its representivity. The study found that the
New figures will guide government action THE government is to revamp its social security system and policies based on the findings of a study by Statistics South Africa showing that HIV is a major underlying cause of death in the country. Mbulelo Musi, a spokesman for the Social Development Department, said the study w
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday, 17 November 2002
Thabisile Gumede
At the age of 12, Mthobisi Ngcobo is learning to survive as an Aids orphan. The Grade five pupil is among 67 orphans who are acquiring gardening skills at the Umkhumbi ka Noah community centre at Swayimani, near Wartburg in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. Known by locals as Noah s Ark, the centre is the first of five such
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday, 17 November 2002
Victor Khupiso
When nursing sister Rosina Letwaba was confronted with overwhelming poverty and Aids deaths among her patients, she decided to do something about the situation. So she initiated a support group and used her own money to start a vegetable garden at the Alexandra Clinic in Alexandra, near Joburg . Letwaba, 34, was jolted
SINGING star Brenda Fassie s former husband, Nhlanhla Mbambo, who is serving a 10-year jail term for murder, is spreading the gospel of HIV/Aids-prevention to fellow inmates. Mbambo, 36, the chairman of the prisoners Aids Control Committee at the Westville prison in Durban, has formed the body with other murderers, fra
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 03 November, 2002
Mawande Jubasi
The impoverished community of KwaDabeka in Durban will be one of the first pilot sites to receive antiretroviral drugs at its clinic for HIV-infected patients when KwaZulu- Natal receives its R720-million grant from the UN Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria. Dr Robert Pawinski, a co-leader of the KwaZulu-Natal E
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 27 October 2002
Sechaba Ka'Nkosi
The ANC is set to reposition itself as a left-wing formation that will tackle bread-and-butter issues at its December conference. Proposals circulating in the organisation suggest that it heightens its interest in key left-wing demands such as a comprehensive social security system and HIV/AIDS treatment. While the pro
Ironically, Swazi King Mswati III last year revived a traditional ban on sex with underage girls in order to combat HIV/Aids, but has violated the ban by taking young girls as wives SWAZI King Mswati III s courtiers were this week accused in court of abducting two 17-year-old girls and an 18-year-old girl for royal dut
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday, 20 October 2002
Dingilizwe Ntuli
President Thabo Mbeki associated himself publicly with the provision of anti-Aids drugs for the first time yesterday by visiting the Levai Mbatha Community Health Centre in Evaton during the East Rand leg of the presidential imbizo (public forum). The clinic provides comprehensive primary healthcare and is one of the h
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 06 October, 2002
Justice Malala: New York
The number of people infected with HIV/Aids will grow significantly by the end of the decade, reaching up to 75 million in the world s five most populous countries and continuing to decimate millions in Central and Southern Africa, a new US intelligence report says. The report also says rates of infection will grow dra
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 06 October, 2002
Ronnie Govender
- Hundreds of tiny coffins bear witness to the extent of fatal disease Bongiwe Nzimande this week buried her grandson, Sinemandla, who died eight days after he was born. It was a shortage of blood, she said, after performing the final rites at her funeral. He just couldn t breathe. Sinemandla is among 372 babies who ha
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 06 October, 2002
Brett Horner
A bold new plan involving traditional medicine in the treatment of HIV/Aids is being explored by the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine in Durban. The objective of the project is to identify safe and effective therapies in the fight against the disease, looking specifically at indigenous plants used in traditional Sou
A BOLD new plan involving traditional medicine in the treatment of HIV/Aids is being explored by the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine in Durban. The objective of the project is to identify safe and effective therapies for the fight against the disease, looking specifically at indigenous plants used in traditional So
RAPE victims admitted to all KwaZulu-Natal hospitals and community health centres will be given free Aids drugs with immediate effect. The move follows a Cabinet resolution in April to make Post Exposure Prophylaxis treatment - which consists of a combination of the controversial drug AZT
ONE of South Africa s top judges has likened denying the existence of Aids to denying the Holocaust, and has taken President Thabo Mbeki to task for officially encouraging this denial. Speaking after being honoured with a top human rights award by the English Bar in London on Friday night, Judge Edwin Cameron of the Ap
FORMER President Nelson Mandela, speaking alongside former US President Bill Clinton at Orange Farm south of Johannesburg yesterday, said it was only a matter of time before Aids drugs would be available to the public. He praised corporations that have contributed to the loveLife campaign, which aims to make youth awar
UN relief agencies say the number of people affected by a severe food crisis in Southern Africa has grown from 12.8 million to 14.4 million. Lesotho , Malawi , Mozambique , Swaziland , Zambia and
The government doctor with plans to illegally capture an endangered species of chimpanzee for use in HIV vaccine tests did not have permission to conduct the experiment. This was confirmed by Department of Health officials, who acted swiftly to reprimand 65-year-old Dr Victor Toma this week. Toma was identified by the
A SOUTH African inventor has patented a device that can slip a condom into place in less than three seconds. The device, contained inside a normal condom packet, consists of two small plastic tabs with a condom suspended in between. It could mean an end to fumbling condom interruptions in the heat of the moment - still
Losing a daughter to Aids, with another infected, has not broken Rita Bantjies s spirit.Prega Govender At a National Women s Day meeting in Durban last month, those who gathered to celebrate the spirit of sisterhood and solidarity were moved to tears by the story of 52-year-old Rita Bantjies. Many were also moved to an
Whatever has been discussed during the past few days will mean nothing until the HIV/Aids genocide is addressed as a war against terror Pieter-Dirk Uys questions whether anyone really cares To all the visitors in South Africa for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), welcome. If you haven t been robbed, r
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 01 September 2002
Andre Jurgens
SA doctor says he plans to break the law for the good of humanity by capturing wild apes for vaccine experiment. A SOUTH African doctor is planning to illegally capture wild chimpanzees - which are endangered - to use in an HIV vaccine experiment. And despite stinging criticism from environmentalists, including chimp e
A total of $10-billion a year - three times the current level being spent in lower- and middle-income countries - needs to be spent on fighting HIV/Aids in these countries, says Peter Piot, UNAIDS executive director. Piot, addressing a media conference at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, said meeting this g
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 25 August, 2002
Thabo Mkhize
Criminals have forced a state-of-the-art Aids research centre to suspend all its fieldwork after two vehicles were hijacked and a 69-year-old driver was murdered this week. A local policeman said criminals viewed the R10-million Africa Centre outside Mtubatuba on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast - which is sponsored by Br
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 25 August, 2002
Mawande Jubasi
Malan Mhlongo, like hundreds of desperate Aids victims in the Msinga area of northern KwaZulu-Natal, could not be admitted to the local hospital because it was overcrowded, with patients sleeping on the floor. But, thanks to a care organisation that is at the centre of a war of words between the government and the Unit
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 25 August, 2002
Bonny Schoonakker
Former President Nelson Mandela has spoken for the first time of how he has been personally affected by the Aids pandemic, losing close relatives to the disease. This week, Mandela confirmed to the Sunday Times that three young members of his family had succumbed to Aids in the Eastern Cape and that he had visited one
ANGOLA: Medicins sans Frontieres estimates 1.5 million people are suffering from acute malnutrition; Five deaths a day in camps set up for ex-Unita soldiers. ZAMBIA: Two million face starvation as food runs out this month, government says; Total crop failure in the south due to drought; Maize shortage estimated at 630
THE Aids crisis is frustrating relief agencies efforts to prevent a major humanitarian disaster in Southern African countries suffering from an acute food crisis. About 13 million people in Lesotho , Malawi , Mozambique , Swaziland ,
NOMBEKO Mpongo has refused to allow the rapist who infected her with HIV to give her a death sentence - instead, she used the ordeal to give others hope. Mpongo, 29, was raped five years ago. The attack changed her life. She ditched her reflexology studies and became a courageous counsellor to others with HIV. Later th
It is ironic and tragic that we had to go to court to get the government to implement a protocol it adopted. Aids activist Zackie Achmat says the government has misinformed people about Aids drug nevirapine . The political manipulation of the Medicines Control Council is a threat to our democracy, says Zackie Achmat.
SA has the scientific, industrial and financial base to mass-produce an antiretroviral prescription that could greatly extend the lives of millions. John and Matt Stremlau say Aids is Nepad s big threat. SOUTH Africa s brokering of peace between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda has been rightly hailed in
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 04 August 2002
Michael Schmidt
ABOUT 1 000 HIV-positive, abused or neglected children left stranded by a banking mess-up have been given a R1-million-plus lifeline - after Metro revealed their plight. The Sinelungelo Children s Project - which looks after children from Orange Farm, Kliptown, Soweto and Alexandra - ground to a halt last year after it
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 04 August 2002
Mawande Jubasi
THE fate of the controversial Aids drug nevirapine hangs in the balance, with the Medicines Control Council set to take a final decision next month on whether HIV-positive pregnant women in South Africa should continue using it. The council confirmed this week that it was reviewing its approval of the drug becaus
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 28 July, 2002
Bobby Jordan
The head of South Africa s largest nursing union has lashed out at plans to make HIV tests compulsory for foreign nurses working in Britain - including thousands of South Africans. The president of the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa, Ephraim Mafalo, this week said compulsory tests would stigmatise HIV-
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 28 July, 2002
Bobby Jordan
South African Medical Association chairman Dr Kgosi Letlape this week joined the chorus of protests against the government s HIV/Aids policy, claiming doctors could no longer be a part of a system that commits genocide . Addressing the opening session of the association s annual national council meeting , Letlape said
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 28 July, 2002
Edwin Lombard
Nelson Mandela said yesterday he would take the cause of stricken Aids activist Zackie Achmat directly to President Thabo Mbeki. The former President said he understood the principled position taken by the Treatment Action Campaign leader to refuse antiretroviral drugs until the state made them available to all HIV-inf
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 28 July, 2002
Michael Schmidt, Andre Jurgens and Bobby Jordan
Siphewe Mngomezulu, 6, is suffering from the effects of marasmus, a condition similar to kwashiorkor - right on the doorstep of one of South Africa s richest suburbs. In Alexandra, Johannesburg - a mere 5km from the Sandton Convention Centre where the World Summit on Sustainable Development will start on August 26 - ch
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 21 July, 2002
Mawande Jubasi
HEALTH Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang yesterday hit out at the Global Fund for Aids over its R712-million grant to KwaZulu-Natal, accusing the fund of bypassing the national government. Speaking at a three-day SA National Aids Council youth summit in Benoni on the East Rand, she said the process of allocating the mo
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday July 21, 2002
WHEN the government announced on April 17 that it was ditching its stubborn stance on the provision of antiretroviral drugs to Aids victims, there was celebration all round. After years of fighting against logic and morality and ignoring the pained voices of its people, the government had finally decided that it would
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 14 July, 2002
Bobby Jordan
IT WAS an easy mistake to make. An Aids activist, plastered with Drug Treatment Now! stickers, had walked straight into a throng of cheering Africans next to the South African stand at this week s 14th International Aids conference in Barcelona, Spain . Within moments, the activist had joined in the rhythmic rendition
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 14 July, 2002
Futhi Ntshingila
An eager group of pupils fire probing questions at members of an Aids education team led by Kanthee Raidoo. The pupils, seated in a hall at Ridge Park College in Overport, Durban, face a large, blood-red banner that asks in white letters What s Killing Us Now? Raidoo, 35, from Umkomaas on the South Coast, listens atten
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 14 July, 2002
Thokozani Mtshali
Half of the boys and more than 40% of girls who participated in a South African youth survey said they would not accept no as an answer if their partners refused to have sex. According to the survey by love- Life, a programme promoting healthy living and positive sexuality among youngsters, there is still an alarming a
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 14 July, 2002
Bobby Jordan
People in Southern Africa are 300 times more at risk of getting HIV/Aids than people in Asia and 30 times more at risk than Indians or Brazilians. These shock findings, by Dr Max Essex from the Harvard Aids Institute in the US, were presented at the 14th International Aids Conference in Spain this week. Peo
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 14 July, 2002
Michael Schmidt and Andre Jurgens
GAUTENG s children are starving. The provincial government has admitted that 750 000 children fall outside its feeding scheme - leading to a rise in the number of malnourished kids being seen at hospitals and welfare homes. Aids is a major culprit contributing to the crisis. Dr Haroon Saloojee, principal specialist and
In the celebrations over this week s landmark judgment that anti-Aids drugs must be provided at state birthing institutions, it should not be forgotten that 40 000 babies were unnecessarily exposed to the suffering of HIV-Aids because of government delaying tactics. For them, the victory might have come too late, said
Controversy erupts as trust suspends starving Aids children s angel for irregularities, while red tape chokes off government grants. A YEAR after their plight was first exposed in the Sunday Times, the Aids orphans of Ingwavuma in KwaZulu-Natal are still facing an uphill battle to make ends meet. A visit to the poverty
IN THE celebrations over this week s landmark judgment that HIV/Aids drugs must be provided at state birthing institutions, it should not be forgotten that 40 000 babies were unnecessarily exposed to the suffering of the disease because of government s delay tactics. For them, the victory might have come too late, said
The Constitutional Court on Friday denied the government leave to appeal against a High Court ruling forcing it to provide anti-Aids drugs in State hospitals. Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson delivered the judgment saying there was a pressing need to ensure that the loss of lives was prevented. The anxiety of the applic
Cosatu and the Treatment Action Campaign are to table a national HIV/Aids treatment plan in Nedlac following the first national treatment conference, which concluded in Durban this week. This will allow Cosatu to declare a dispute with government and business should no agreement be reached in the National Economic, Dev
Former President Nelson Mandela has taken centre stage in the fight against HIV/Aids by throwing his weight behind several prominent Aids projects. The 83-year-old statesman is meeting traditional leaders to encourage them to speak to their communities about Aids. He will also deliver the closing address at next month
The University of Natal is set to become the centre of the against HIV-Aids in Africa after receiving well over R1- billion in funding from international donors. The money will be used to build the first state-of-the-art HIV/Aids research facility in South Africa , and bring together top researchers from around the glo
Thirty HIV-positive teachers have formed a support group in a bid to prevent the education department and school governing bodies from discriminating against Aids-infected educators. The move follows the dismissal of Sibongile Mkhize by the KwaZulu-Natal Education Department in December last year after, she claimed, sh
AFRICA S teachers are being wiped out by HIV/Aids, crushing hopes of improving the quality of education. A World Bank report released this week in Washington, in the US, says that in the worst-hit countries, teachers are dying faster than they can be replaced . Teachers deaths deprived an estimated 860 000 children of
A NEW manifestation of the Aids virus among young patients is arousing great interest among the medical fraternity. A ground-breaking study by Professor Runjan Chetty, head of pathology at the Nelson R Mandela Medical School at the University of Natal in Durban, and his colleague, Dr Raj Nair, a vascular surgeon who is
I met Mawe in KwaZulu-Natal and I wanted to spend days, weeks with her. I wanted to know what had happened to this young woman whose cotton robe barely hides her voluptuous breasts. I wanted to know why she will die. This 26-year-old woman had the sass of a Brenda Fassie; the sharp, sly grin of someone who knows she is
LATE on the first day of argument about the state s policy on treating pregnant women with HIV, one of the women at the heart of the matter put her case to the court. The hearing had continued way past the normal close of business but counsel for the Treatment Action Campaign, Gilbert Marcus SC, held the audience and t
A TEAM of national ministers has been tasked with a countrywide tour to clean up lingering confusion over national Aids policy. The move coincides with wide- spread fears that some provinces are not implementing either the recent High Court order to expand access to nevirapine or last month s Cabinet dec
SOME South African employees are taking the lead in the fight against HIV/Aids - donating their time, salaries and services to help victims of the disease. Staff at some of the country s biggest companies and government departments have already raised over R1-million and provided food to orphans in some of the country
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 28 April 2002
Brett Horner
New research has exposed the denial and silence surrounding HIV and Aids in the South African Indian community. A thesis by Pastor Albert Chetty titled Is it a myth that Indians do not suffer from Aids? has revealed cases in which victims, afraid to disclose their status, have died slowly and in agony. I have come acro
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 21 April 2002
Kate Mazomba has been to hell and back. She s been raped, contracted HIV and has throat cancer. But every day she turns her pain into good by helping people in her community. THANDIWE McCLOY tells her story Life is a challenge and we must face it, says Kate, who glares at her unending challenges with enormous courage,
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 21 April 2002
Mondli Makhanya, Additional reporting by Ranjeni Munusamy and Bobby Jordan
PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki has distanced the government from the Aids dissidents from whom he has taken controversial advice over the past few years. According to senior government officials, the Presidency has instructed the Health Ministry to write to the dissidents telling them to stop using Mbeki s name when signing the
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 14 April 2002
The Aids red ribbon has become South Africa s Nike swoosh: in global branding terms, an instantly recognisable logo that describes status awareness. The little beaded squares and pins that festoon our lapels have become part of the local Aids industry - employment potential! - and while the ribbon might say exactly the
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 14 April 2002
Carol Paton
IT IS a testament to the nature of the ANC that, while on Robben Island, one of the movement s intellects came in for a roasting for attempting to teach comrades the basics of physics, beginning with the fact that the earth revolves around the sun. The comrades complained to Nelson Mandela that Mac Maharaj had been tel
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 14 April 2002
Bobby Jordan
South Africa is to test a new TB vaccine that could reduce the number of people infected by the killer disease worldwide. More than 100 000 South Africans are infected with the disease every year, of them 25 000 children. News of the new vaccine trial emerged this week at an international vaccine conference in Cape T
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 07 April 2002
Mawande Jubasi
The University of Natal is providing free Aids drugs to students and staff who are victims of rape or are exposed to the disease through occupational injuries. The deputy vice-chancellor for research, Prof Abdool Karim, said the universtiy was ethically obliged to implement an anti-retroviral programme . But he said th
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 07 April 2002
Bobby Jordan
I expect I have it too, says 30-year-old Vanashree, tugging at a bangle on her wrist. I am scared because they say there is no cure for Aids. Vaneshree is one of a group of female prostitutes sitting two flights of stairs above the streets of India s largest red-light district, Kamathipura in Mumbai. Dressed in a gree
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 07 April 2002
Carmel Rickard
ON THE surface, this week s unprecedented hearing at the Constitutional Court was about saving the lives of babies who would otherwise be infected by their HIV-positive mothers at birth. But there was a second crucial issue never far from the minds of those listening to the argument - can the state be allowed to disreg
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 31 March 2002
Craig Jacobs
Tomorrow night these young mothers will go on national TV to tell millions about living with Aids - and what they think of nevirapine . They hope the Health Minister will tune in. Patience Mqoqi and Pinkie Nocwezo are two of the bravest women in South Africa . Tomorrow, the two young Sow
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 31 March 2002
David Bullard
I have, thus far, avoided the touchy topic of HIV/Aids in this column and for a very good reason. I am not HIV-positive and I know very few people who are HIV- positive and so it is, rather conveniently, not my problem. At this point, I imagine, those of you who are HIV-positive or like to think of yourselves as concer
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 24 March 2002
Rowan Philp
Thabisa Dyala was trapped in a nightmare. Desperate to escape a destructive relationship, the 26-year-old Rhodes University publicist was forced to stay by fear - and the discovery that she was HIV-positive. If she ran, Dyala thought, her status would mean she and her child could never find someone else, and that she w
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 24 March 2002
It s Friday evening at the butt-end of a sizzling 39°C day in the settlement of Louisvale Road, just south of Upington, in the far Northern Cape. Paltry weekly wages and the cents scraped together by the unemployed are quickly being spent on drink. At places like the small tavern in Hanepoot Lane, drunks jostle youths
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 24 March 2002
Bobby Jordan
The World Health Organisation and UNAids have reiterated their support for anti-Aids drug nevirapine , following news this week that the drug may be deregistered in South Africa . Government has threatened to deregister the drug due to news of irregularities in a key clinical trial begun in
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 24 March 2002
Ranjeni Munusamy
President Thabo Mbeki plans to appoint a deputy minister of health, who will be seen as government s champion in the fight against South Africa s Aids crisis. The person will be responsible for defining policy and responding to issues about the disease. This will free Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and her de
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 17 March 2002
Rowan Philp
Nelson Mandela opened a clinic in the Eastern Cape this week that will dispense the Aids drug nevirapine . Having asked pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline to sponsor the R2-million Qaukeni clinic near Lusikisiki, Mandela this week urged staff to give the proper treatment to Aids sufferers, including babies.
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 17 March 2002
Kerry Cullinan
MAYAKHE Ngangele has been waiting for two days to see a doctor after being referred to Umtata General Hospital from an outlying district hospital. But the single Cuban doctor on duty in outpatients this Saturday night is only seeing emergency cases - and there are already nine people crammed into a tiny consulting room
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 03 March 2002
Carmel Rickard
MAYBE the bureaucrats responsible for official policy on HIV/Aids can live with themselves, and perhaps they sleep easy at night. But, for many doctors, the conflict between government policy and their professional - even their constitutional - duty is proving too great. That tension partly explains this week s unusual
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 03 March 2002
Carmel Rickard
Political tensions in KwaZulu-Natal spilled into the High Court this week, when the provincial premier effectively silenced his health MEC because of differences about the government s policy on HIV/Aids. On Friday, the Inkatha Freedom Party s Lionel Mtshali dropped a bombshell in the Pretoria High Court - his legal te
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 24 February 2002
SUNDAY Times readers have heeded President Thabo Mbeki s state-of-the-nation call for South Africans to lend a hand and build a better life for all. Moved by the plight of Aids orphans at the Ingwavuma Orphan Care in rural KwaZulu-Natal, the trustees of the Sunday Times Charity Crossword Fund pledged R250 000 to the pr
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 24 February 2002
In the tranquil Ingwavuma hills, Aids is taking a tragic toll. But there are people who bring hope, reports Andrew Unsworth IN GOD S hands, Babazile Shongwe of Ingwavuma in KwaZulu-Natal replies when asked how she sees her future. She may be right. At 50 years old, Shongwe looks defeated. She has to walk 20 minutes to
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday, February 17, 2002
Ranjeni Munusamy
Former president Nelson Mandela has called for an end to the debate on HIV/Aids, saying the government and South Africans should focus on fighting the war against the disease. In an interview with the Sunday Times this week, Mandela issued his strongest attack so far on the government s lack of urgency in the fight aga
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 10 February 2002
Bafana Khumalo
`If you have sex, you get HIV and you die! Finish and klaar. You are 14 years old, your hormones are raging against the system and that s what everyone tells you. If they tell you anything, that is. It s terrifying; that s how issues concerning teenage sexuality have been communicated for as long as Aids has been an is
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 10 February 2002
Ranjeni Munusamy
IN WHAT presidential aides are calling a new style of governance , President Thabo Mbeki reached out to the nation on Friday, calling on his fellow citizens to lend a hand to push back the frontiers of poverty and expand access to a better life . The vintage rhetoric made way for an all-embracing, reconciliatory state-
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 10 February 2002
Carol Paton
The funny thing about President Thabo Mbeki and his collection of speechwriters and advisers is that often they don t say what they mean. In fact, sometimes they say just the opposite. The State-of-the-Nation address was a perfect example. Although public pressure to provide antiretroviral therapy to pregnant women has
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 10 February 2002
Buddy Naidu
SOUTH African musician Ringo Madlingozi has recorded a duet highlighting the Aids pandemic with the British reggae supergroup UB40. Ringo recorded the title song from the band s new album, Cover Up, in Xhosa two weeks ago at a Johannesburg studio. They had recorded the song in Spanish and English and wanted to do an Af
Former president Nelson Mandela has delivered a thinly-veiled rebuke over the government s unwillingness to roll out its programme to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. He was speaking in Cape Town at the presentation of the 2002 Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights yesterday to two University of
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 03 February 2002
Bobby Jordan
THE Democratic Alliance has challenged Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa to follow the lead of the Western Cape and immediately make anti-Aids drugs available in the public sector. Anti-retrovirals for HIV-positive pregnant mothers and rape survivors actually saves money because prevention of new HIV cases eases the str
South African scientists are scratching their heads over startling new research that suggests some whites are more resistant to HIV/Aids than blacks. Studies conducted in South Africa and abroad show that a large number of whites lack a particular protein in their bodies - a genetic mutation that has been shown to slow
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 27 January 2002
Mawande Jubasi
TESTS on the drug nevirapine in KwaZulu-Natal have so far achieved a 100% success rate in preventing the transmission of HIV from mother to child. Dr Daya Moodley, who heads the research unit which ran the tests, said the programme s success would be confirmed in December when final tests are conducted on the babies, 1
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 20 January 2002
The discovery of a wild chimpanzee infected with the simian form of HIV is lending support to the theory that chimpanzees are the reservoir of a virus that has mutated to cause Aids in humans, New Scientist reports. Beatrice Hahn of the University of Alabama in the US and colleagues found the chimpanzee, which has been
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 20 January 2002
Prega Govender
A KwaZulu-Natal doctor was so concerned that pregnant HIV-positive women were not being given nevirapine that he used his own money to buy the drug - in defiance of the Health Department. Dr Andrew Grant, the acting medical manager of Bethesda Hospital near Mkuze in northern KwaZulu-Natal, paid R743 for the drug, which
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 20 January 2002
Bobby Jordan
The babies in this row have one thing in common: they were abandoned by their mothers, who wanted nothing more to do with them - just four of the estimated 3 500 to 5 000 babies abandoned last year. On the left is four-month-old Alexandra Mbonani. Her mother, a final-year BCom student, left her at a home for unmarried
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 20 January 2002
Lionel Adendorf
Twelve hours after this picture was taken, six-month-old Aids baby Anathi Ngedle died, gently sent to where, his nurses told him, ice cream is for free, the sandpits are bigger and you don t have to wait for a swing . Ngedle briefly became a symbol of the Aids pandemic when he was pictured on Nelson Mandela s knee at a
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