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.
Editorial
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.
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.”
Stop Dancing to Moody’s tune
Moody’s would have known that downgrading SA at this moment would place our government in even greater difficulty in confronting Covid-19 and hobble it in the reconstruction that must follow its aftermath. But they went ahead anyway.
Inclusive, empathetic communication will be a game-changer in Covid-19 emergency
One of the earliest lessons taught to us by AIDS activists is that in an epidemic, the language we use is as important as physical or medical strategies we may adopt for disease prevention, treatment and care. Language needs to be accurate, affirming, empowering, non-stigmatising and inclusive.
Human Rights – a vaccine to limit the spread of Covid-19
According to President Ramaphosa Covid-19 is ‘a medical emergency far graver than what the world has experienced in over a century’. He told the nation that: ‘Never before in the history of our democracy has our country been confronted with such a severe situation.’
We need unity and urgency NOW to stop Coronavirus
Let’s be clear: Our people have no reserves left for another disaster. HIV, tuberculosis, Life Esidimeni, more and more people dying of cancer; diseases that have eaten up our reserves and capacity to respond to a catastrophe. Unemployment has sapped our morale. Hunger is endemic. Our public health systems are all overstretched.
Let the children starve?
It is not uncommon to see women, often elderly, with infant children sitting at road intersections begging for money. It’s hard not to be moved by the plight of both woman and child. It’s like witnessing a living, walking, crawling billboard advertising poverty, unemployment and hunger.