the Guardian
Britain will fete South Africa’s visiting leader, but at home experts hold him complicit in the deaths of his people
The health minister in the province of Mpumalanga said she knew exactly what President Thabo Mbeki would make of the little pills given to rape survivors in the hope of staving off Aids. They were really a plot to poison black people, she claimed.
The minister, Sibongile Manana, went further and ordered volunteer rape counsellors out of the province’s public hospitals because she said they were “trying to overthrow the government”.
Their crime was to ensure raped women were quickly given access to antiretroviral drugs which can prevent HIV infection from taking hold if taken within hours of the assault. The need for the pills has taken on added urgency in Mpumalanga province where many rapes are committed against girls under 15 years old because of a widely held belief that sex with a virgin is a cure for HIV.
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE…(theguardian.com)
