AFRO-NETS> AIDS In South Africa: "We Have A Genocide On Our Hands"

[Dieter Neuvians MD <neuvians@mweb.co.zw>]

AIDS In South Africa: "We Have A Genocide On Our Hands"
-------------------------------------------------------

by Kate Prendergast and Firoze Manji, Fahamu
Source: KABISSA-FAHAMU-SANGONET NEWSLETTER 38
mailto:editor@kabissa.org

A devastating report on the impact of AIDS in South Africa has fi-
nally been published this week, despite concerted efforts by the 
South African government to suppress and discredit it. The report, 
produced by the Medical Research Council of South Africa, makes for 
alarming reading. It demonstrates that 40% of all deaths in the 15-49 
age group in South Africa are now AIDS related, and it predicts that, 
if left unchecked, the total number of AIDS related deaths in South 
Africa will rise to between 5-7 million by 2010. By the end of this 
decade, the authors argue, average life expectancy will drop in South 
Africa from 54 to 41, and about 780,000 people will be dying each 
year from Aids, the highest number in any country in the world.

The authors of the report include researchers from the University of 
Cape Town and The London School of Tropical Hygiene. It has been sub-
ject to rigorous review, including approval by Peter Goldblatt, the 
chief medical statistician for England and Wales. The authors argue 
it represents the most comprehensive investigation to date of the ef-
fects of AIDS in South Africa, and its findings have been widely ac-
cepted by a range of organisations, including unions, churches, and 
even some politicians within the ANC.

Yet, the government itself has persistently tried to prevent its pub-
lication, and now seeks to undermine the report's credibility. While 
Thabo Mbeki's views - that AIDS is only responsible for a fraction of 
deaths, and may not even be related to HIV - are well known, the 
health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, and Essop Pahad have now 
weighed into the debate. In an attempt to discredit and deride the 
report, they have described it as a "massive propaganda tool" in the 
hands of those who argue for wide distribution of anti-retroviral 
drugs, and have condemned a "sense of hysteria" over the question of 
deaths from Aids.

If the findings of the report are shocking, the reaction of the South 
African government is even more so. In the words of anti-apartheid 
activist and former human rights commissioner, Rhoda Kadalie, who, 
writing in a Johannesburg newspaper, called on Dr Tshabalala-Msimang 
to resign: "We have a genocide on our hands and you and your cohorts 
have been unwilling to listen to the experts.If the president is mak-
ing it impossible to do your work effectively, why not resign with 
dignity in defiance of someone who is taking the country down with 
him?"

As the recent United Nations Development Report on HIV/AIDS and pov-
erty makes clear, if the devastation of AIDS in developing countries, 
and sub-Saharan Africa in particular is to be tackled, governments 
will need to implement a range of far reaching measures, that include 
adequate treatment as well as an adequate infrastructure to support 
people through the appalling toll that AIDS will wreak. COSATU, the 
Treatment Action Campaign and the Catholic Church have also called 
for such measures in South Africa. It is a matter of urgency that the 
South African government now takes its head out of the sand and ac-
knowledges the real threat of AIDS before the horrific scenario pre-
dicted the MRC's report becomes a reality.

Rhoda Kadalie's words raise a critical question: Can a legal case be 
made to lay a charge of genocide against those individuals responsi-
ble? Article 6 of the Rome Statute of The International Criminal 
Court, for example, states: "For the purpose of this Statute, "geno-
cide" means any of the following acts committed with intent to de-
stroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious 
group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious 
bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately in-
flicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about 
its physical destruction in whole or in part [.] ." Are there other 
instruments that would allow an appropriate case to be made that the 
failure to act on HIV/AIDS amounts to an act of genocide? Should not 
efforts be made to test whether a formal charge of genocide can be 
made? Would not such an attempt act as a stimulus - perhaps the most 
effective of all - to get appropriate action taken by the authorities 
not only in South Africa, but also in other African states?

Aids is Number One Killer in South Africa Says Report 
http://allafrica.com/stories/200110160517.html

Aids will kill 700,000 South Africans a year 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/aids/story/0,7369,575363,00.html

The Impact of HIV/AIDS on Adult Mortality in South Africa, Medical 
Research Council Report 
http://www.mrc.ac.za/bod/index.htm

UNDP Report: HIV/AIDS: Implications for Poverty Reduction 
http://www.undp.org/dpa/publications/hiv.html

COSATU: Joint statement on AIDS 
http://www.cosatu.org.za/press/2001/Joint_statement_on_AIDS--21816.html 

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