Sisulus go public with news of Aids death

Published Jul 30, 2000

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By Chimaimba Banda

One of South Africa's most prominent political families, in a painfully public gesture, declared that a relative has died of an HIV/Aids-related disease in a move aimed at fighting the silent killer and removing the stigma around it.

The Sisulus, one of the first high-profile South African families to speak out about the loss of one of their own to Aids, has been lauded for candidly disclosing the death of Beryl Samantha Lockman, 28, the grandchild of African National Congress veteran Walter Sisulu's late sister, Rosabella.

The Sisulus told mourners at a private funeral at the weekend that Lockman had contracted cryptococcal meningitis in January. She was diagnosed as HIV-positive in March and came to South Africa from Zambia for treatment.

Max Sisulu, son of the anti-apartheid stalwart, said last night the decision to come out in the open was taken at a family meeting and "everybody was involved". The decision reflected his family's commitment to the fight against the killer disease, he said.

Lockman was the daughter of Gerald Lockman, one of Rosabella's two children, and had been helping to run a family business in Zambia. She leaves a son, Jason.

She died in the Johannesburg hospital last Saturday, a few hours after being admitted. She was buried in the Croesus cemetery in Bosmont on Saturday.

ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama said the Sisulus' action should encourage South Africans to take the government's anti-Aids campaign seriously.

The Democratic Party last night praised the Sisulus for their courage in going public with the tragedy.

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