Durban - With new research showing that one third of people living with HIV suffered stigma, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa urged South Africans on Tuesday to speak out against discrimination.
Stigma and intolerance – whether overt or whispered – made people reluctant to get tested for HIV and to seek treatment, Ramaphosa said at the annual South African Aids Conference in Durban.
Before delivering the conference keynote address, Ramaphosa visited Gugu Dlamini Memorial Park, which was named after the KwaMashu woman who was stoned to death in 1998 after publicly disclosing her HIV positive status.
Ramaphosa said the findings of South Africa’s first stigma survey – which was released on Tuesday – revealed that discrimination had not been rooted out. “People continue to face harassment, prejudice and violence,” he said. “Sometimes the discrimination is not overt, it is silent and secret. It could be a glance, a whisper or a social snub,” said the deputy president, who is also chairman of the SA National Aids Council.
The stigma index survey, which was commissioned by the council and undertaken by the Human Sciences Research Council, gathered information from more than 10 000 people living with HIV, in two districts in each of the nine provinces.
Its findings were that more than 40% of people living with HIV suffered internalised stigma, feeling shame and inferiority, and 11% contemplated suicide.
Experiences of stigma were highest among women and young people aged 15 to 24.
The three provinces with the highest HIV prevalence – KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State and Mpumalanga – also exhibited the highest levels of stigma.
According to the research, 90% of HIV-positive people surveyed had shared their status with their spouse or partner.
Sindisiwe Blose, the project leader for the stigma index, said that even a single act of discrimination could alter the course of a person’s life.
“During our research, we heard from people living with HIV who had refused marriage due to stigma, had avoided work promotion, or had been coerced into undergoing sterilisation.
“Behind the figures lies a depth of suffering that struggles to be addressed,” Blose said. The conference saw Deputy Health Minister Joe Phaahla announce measures to root out persistent forms of stigma, including a national television and radio awareness campaign and a national legal assistance programme for people who were discriminated against because they had HIV or tuberculosis.
Mandisa Dlamini, who was 13 when her mother, Gugu, was murdered in 1998, recalled how the killers had told her to come and fetch her “dog”.
She has since gone on to establish the Gugu Dlamini Foundation, helping young women living in KwaMashu to make informed life choices, particularly as related to HIV, alcohol, drugs and skills development.
“We can’t fight HIV if we are afraid to talk about it with our children,” Dlamini said.
During his keynote address later on Tuesday, Ramaphosa said it was important to admit the mistakes the country had made in its HIV response, but it was equally critical to celebrate that more than 3 million HIV-positive people were on antiretroviral treatment, and that the rate of mother-to-child transmission was now below 3%.
He also emphasised the importance of government and civil society organisations working together, saying that fighting the epidemic was the responsibility of all South Africans.
The Mercury