In a world without Covid-19, Thursday would have seen the start of the annual joberg2c mountain bike race but, like many sporting events, it has been cancelled. The field on the outskirts of Heidelberg, where hundreds of nervous men, women and their bikes usually gather for the start, was empty this year.
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A People’s Doctor to the End – Dr Victor Bernard Holland (28 March 1943 – 19 April 2020)
Dr Victor Holland, who died on 19th April, was born and grew up in the years just before the advent of National Party rule and apartheid. His life and profession as a doctor was blighted by racism and inequality but it also forged a life-long approach to equality in medicine and health.
South Africa’s greatest strength is its people
South Africa’s last great viral epidemic started in the early 1980s and is still with us today. But with HIV, unlike with SARS-CoV-2, we wasted 20 years before we found consensus on the need and means to fight HIV. We faced a government, under President Thabo Mbeki, that sought to disable the response and throw into question the science.
A Time of Reckoning
This morning (Monday, April 20) the Cabinet will gather for what may be one of the most important Cabinet meetings in the history of democratic South Africa. Difficult decisions, with profound consequences, need to be taken and then quickly conveyed to an increasingly restless and desperate public.
April is the Cruellest Month: Can we begin to breed lilacs of equality in a dead land?
During lockdown, I work from a room on top of a hill. I have two views. One is outward, over the northern suburbs of Johannesburg, above an urban forest and the rooftops of spacious and secure homes. The pollution has lifted and the vista extends all the way to the Magaliesberg mountains whose outlines are crisp and clear. There’s a calmness in the air. Clouds dance, form playful shapes, undisturbed by perpetual air traffic and the heat generated by the busy city.
Who is blocking emergency relief for the poorest households?
On Monday Maverick Citizen reported on an important letter sent to President Ramaphosa by an influential group of children’s rights organisations, academics and international bodies, including UNICEF, calling for the Child Support Grant to be increased by R500 for the next six months.
State of our Covid-nation: The matter of trust and lockouts
Yesterday I reached out to a close friend and comrade of mine in England. We both studied at Oxford University and then spent two decades in the trenches trying to defeat HIV. Now she’s in London. She replied to my inquiry about her well-being by sending a sad and eerie video of the streets of London and with an admission: “It’s very, very hard.”
Activists step up door-to-door work to protect poor communities
One of the lasting lessons of the Aids epidemic has been the importance of involving communities directly in epidemic prevention, treatment and care. In addition, it has been understood that community activists, who are known and trusted by local residents, are usually the best people to mobilise communities behind public health messages.
‘We have lost a Comrade Professor’ – Farewell to Gita Ramjee
An online memorial service was held on Saturday for world-renowned South African HIV researcher Professor Gita Ramjee who died last week of complications related to Covid-19. Maverick Citizen editor and long-time HIV activist Mark Heywood was one of those who paid tribute to Ramjee during the memorial. Below is the short, but heartfelt tribute he delivered.
Influential coalition urges President Ramaphosa to increase child support grants
On Friday evening, just as the sun was going down, an important letter was despatched over the internet to President Cyril Rampahosa, calling for an immediate R500-a-month increase to the child support grant for a period of six months. Such a measure, the letter states, ‘is the simplest, quickest and most effective way to get cash into millions of poor households that will otherwise face food insecurity and debilitating poverty’.