ALLAN SECCOMBE, Johannesburg | Thursday
IN a rare show of unity, three South African Nobel peace laureates have urged the government to step up the fight against Aids, which afflicts one in 10 South Africans.
Former presidents Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk joined Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu in calling on South Africans to accept people suffering from the killer disease.
De Klerk said the disease that has infected 4.3 million of of the country’s 42 million citizens had united former foes as the country grappled with the implications of the disease.
”The three of us in the past have had our war of words. It is wonderful that on the biggest challenge facing the country the three of us can speak with one voice,” De Klerk said.
With 1700 new infections every day, South Africa has one of the world’s fastest growing infection rates as the government struggles to come to grips with a pandemic that threatens to kill up to seven million people within a decade, stalling the country’s population growth and derailing its economy.
UNAids, the global anti-Aids group, says the South African economy could be 17% smaller by 2010 than it would have been without Aids and by then Aids would have cost the country about $22bn.
”I sincerely hope that the attitude of our people towards Aids sufferers is going to change because in that way we will help them to fight against this deadly disease,” Mandela told about 300 people gathered in a downtown Johannesburg cathedral.
”That is one of the things that is killing more people than is necessary. When you isolate human beings because of their illness you are saying to them we don’t want to associate with you, you are not one of us and many people lose the determination to fight against disease,” Mandela said.
Tutu echoed his sentiments, saying Aids sufferers were being treated in the same way that society shunned lepers years ago.
Mandela and De Klerk won the Nobel peace prize in 1993 for their efforts and Tutu won the award in 1984. – Reuters