It is best for a family to be open about suffering from terminal diseases rather than let rumours spread like wildfire, former president Nelson Mandela said on Thursday after announcing that he lost his son, Makgatho Mandela, earlier in the day to Aids.
Addressing reporters in the garden of his home in Houghton, Johannesburg, with his wife, Graca Machel, and members of his family by his side, Mandela said announcing such things maintains one’s dignity and integrity.
Still able to be cheerful in spite of the family loss, Mandela cautioned that news spread in medical circles.
“Doctors have assistants. They are going to whisper … and it will spread like wildfire.”
Denial, he said, would reflect badly on a family that has a member who died of Aids.
Mandela said he started his campaign more than three years ago to encourage people not to hide HIV/Aids and to make people understand HIV is an ordinary thing.
“That is why I have announced that my son died from Aids.”
He said being open about HIV/Aids is the only way to stop people “regarding it as an extraordinary thing for which people go to hell and not to heaven”.
Recalling when he suffered from tuberculosis in prison, and later prostrate cancer, he said it has been important to be open about his condition.
In the first instance, Mandela said he had gathered his fellow inmates to tell them about his tuberculosis condition and in the second he had announced to the press that he had prostate cancer.
Makgatho (54) died in a Johannesburg clinic on Thursday. He was admitted to the Linksfield hospital late in November. He was part of Standard Bank’s legal team and worked as a consultant for the group.
He was Mandela’s eldest child and only surviving son from his first marriage to Evelyn Ntoko Mase, who died some time ago.
Last year, Makgatho’s wife, Zondi, died of pneumonia. He is survived by four sons.
In a statement on Thursday, Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille said: “We are internally grateful for Mr Mandela’s tremendous courage to announce that his son died of Aids. His courage shows his dire commitment to the fight against HIV/Aids in this country and willingness to save many more lives currently affected by this pandemic.”
The Inkatha Freedom Party has also praised Mandela for announcing that his son died from Aids.
In May last year, IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, who has spoken out against the government’s slow response to the pandemic, announced that his son had been a victim of the pandemic.
“We praise Dr Nelson Mandela for taking this courageous step of disclosing the cause of his son’s death,” said the party’s secretary general, Musa Zondi, in a statement on Thursday.
“We know it is not an easy decision to make and yet it is the right thing to do to help break the silence on the HIV/Aids pandemic and to remove the negative stigma which shrouds it.
“Dr Nelson Mandela, like Dr Mangosuthu Buthelezi, has exercised responsible and exemplary leadership in a country whose leadership are generally in denial about the pandemic.
“We honour these two great men of our times and pray that the other leaders of our country may emulate their good example and lead the battle in the fight against the HIV/Aids pandemic,” Zondi said. — Sapa
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