Crude language in an Aids awareness message, withdrawn by the public South African Broadcasting Corporation after a recent complaint, reflects the way young people speak and act, said the head of the organisation driving it.
In the offending advertisement, the famed satirist and Aids activist, Pieter-Dirk Uys, says in the Afrikaans language: ”Afrikaans people think HIV/Aids can’t happen to ‘our’ people. They’re wrong. Afrikaans children also fuck (naai).”
The organisation loveLife chose Uys as ”one of 10 leading South Africans” to urge parents to talk openly about sex to their children, loveLife chief executive officer David Harrison told AFP.
Uys, former South African president Nelson Mandela and Deputy President Jacob Zuma were among the ten chosen leaders.
Harrison said: ”(Uys) has done HIV-prevention programmes in more than 200 schools and is interacting with young people. He is reflecting what they say.
”At least a third of teenagers by 16 are having sex without any regard for the consequences, often in relationships devoid of love. ‘Naai’ epitomises that.”
”The conventional approach to (safe) sex in South Africa has not worked,” said Harrison.
South Africa has an estimated 1 600 new HIV infections daily and some 4,7-million people living with the deadly disease.
Uys has condemned the SABC decision to withdraw the advertisement. ”There’s no time to be polite and vague about the dangers (of Aids),” he said Friday.
”The house is on fire! Warn them! Urgently!”.
He said when he presented his one-person Aids awareness shows in remote rural areas, when he spoke to children about ”sex between men and women” they did not know what he was talking about.
”When I say, it’s about ‘naai’, they know exactly,” he said.
SABC representative Nalini Ramdhani confirmed the advertisement was withdrawn ”because of the language” and said it would be replaced by ”suitable” loveLife advertisements.
A Cape Town father complained about the advertisement after it was aired while he was watching television with his five-year-old daughter. – Sapa