Former deputy president Jacob Zuma was playing with fire when he had unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman, says the CEO of loveLife, South Africa’s national HIV-prevention programme for youth.
Zuma has been accused of raping an HIV-positive woman and is currently on trial in the Johannesburg High Court.
He told the court this week that neither he nor the 31-year-old family friend had a condom, but had decided to have sex anyway. The woman had earlier testified that she ”froze” after the alleged rape.
Zuma told the court that after serving on the country’s Aids Council he knew the risk was ”minimal” that he would be infected.
The CEO of loveLife, Dr David Harrison, says Zuma’s remark was hugely damaging.
”It is typical for the problems we face in South Africa today. Due to campaigns and education, the awareness of HIV/Aids is very high, but when it comes to people personally, they tend to think they are not at risk,” Harrison told the Mail & Guardian Online on Tuesday.
A 2003 survey of 15- to 24-year-olds by loveLife found that 62% of respondents who were unaware that they were already HIV-positive thought they were not at risk of HIV/Aids.
”It is very easy to repeat the ABC [the Aids-prevention message of abstinence, be faithful and wear a condom], to pay lip service. Sadly, the message is not internalised,” said Harrison.
Established in 1999, loveLife’s goal is to turn back the virus sweeping this country and decrease related epidemics of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.
The organisation hopes to get its message across through nationwide media campaigns and face-to-face programmes in community-based youth centres. ”Young people are not just passive receivers of information. In our current campaign we try to speak to them directly and encourage them to actively ‘take back their future’,” said Harrison.
According to Harrison, it is not certain that a person will be infected after a single unprotected sexual encounter.
”It depends on a number of variables, like the amount of force used during intercourse, pre-existing abrasions and injuries, and other pre-existing sexual transmitted diseases.”
Women also tend to be more vulnerable, especially young women. Because their vaginal lining is much thinner than that of older women, they are more likely to catch the virus during unprotected sex. Whether the man ejaculates inside her also makes a difference.
Why Zuma, as a former chairperson of the Aids Council, stated that the risk of him contracting HIV/Aids after unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman was ”minimal” remains a mystery. South Africans are bombarded with messages telling them to use condoms — what are they to believe?
Harrison said: ”Zuma’s words are typical and illustrate the troubling issues in this country. The risk he took was indeed very significant. Having unprotected sex is not a risk worth taking.”
Considering that the prevalence of HIV/Aids among South African men between 30 and 40 is one in four (25%) and even higher for younger age groups, everybody can understand that having unprotected sex with a new partner is a dangerous gamble.
Harrison said there should be better understanding of the underlying drivers for having unprotected sex, such as coercion, peer pressure and low self-esteem.
Also, the pressure women face to have unprotected sex and the male belief of being entitled to sex are grossly underestimated.
”It is not until these underlying drivers and social practices so embedded in South African culture are dealt with that things are going to change,” Harrison said. ”We need a leader who understands the true issues to really create momentum for change.”