SOUTH Africa’s longest surviving HIV-positive born child, Nkosi Johnson, has died in his Melville, Johannesburg home. His foster mother, Gail Johnson was at his bedside when he died on Friday morning. Johnson will be remembered as the Aids activist who challenged the government’s Aids policies and united millions of South Africans in the fight against the disease. He was initially given nine months to live when his foster mother Gail Johnson took him in at the age of two. Nkosi first came to the fore in 1997 when Johnson successfully took on parents at the Melville Primary School who were against the boy’s admission. Shortly before Nkosi’s death, his headmaster said most of the pupils at his school did not know he had Aids. For the past four years they would just play together like children do, he said. Nkosi delivered a speech at the 13th International Aids Conference in Durban last July. He told the packed audience, including President Thabo Mbeki, that he wanted AZT to be given to HIV-positive pregnant mothers to prevent transmission of the disease to their unborn babies. He was loudly cheered. “We are normal human beings, we can walk and talk. You can’t get Aids by hugging, kissing and holding hands,” he told the audience.
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