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PRETTY FLY FOR A WHITE GUY: Francois Venter is a big rock climber who once drank tequila with the virologist rockstar Dexter Holland of The Offspring. He’s also one of the country’s leading HIV researchers. (Delywn Verasamy)

HIV research: Professor screw it, let’s do it

Francois Venter talks about his unorthodox inaugural lecture, his work during the Aids crisis and his shoot-from-the-hip fix of our healthcare system

The Health and Human Rights Oral History Project’s video testimonies that capture three decades of health activism from around the world, might provide a blueprint for the next wave of HIV activism. (Bhekisisa)
Video

Fighting for funds: A new era of HIV activism

Instead of the Aids denialism of decades past, it’s US funding cuts that could lead to up to 300 000 more HIV infections in the next four years. Activists like Sisonke Msimang…

The government’s Aids policies sparked protests like the one pictured in 2001 in Cape Town. (Per-Anders Pettersson / Getty Images)

Covid and Aids denial: Have we learnt anything?

Our energies should be focused on solving our health problems, not defending their existence

PRODUCTION – 07 February 2022, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bösingen: ILLUSTRATION – A young woman smokes with an e-shisha in her apartment and is seen silhouetted. (Silas Stein/picture alliance via Getty Images)

A sin tax on vapes is not as bad as Aids denialism. Here’s why

Lobbyists pushing for vaping as a way to help people quit smoking insist taxing e-cigarettes like traditional smokes will lead down a similar path as denying HIV treatment to…

Celebrating justice: Women’s rights activists outside the Khayelitsha magistrate’s court in 2012 at the sentencing of Zoliswa Nkonyana’s killers. Four men were sentenced to 18 years in jail each for the February 2006 murder of the 19-year-old lesbian. (Shelley Christians/
Gallo Images/The Times)

‘We only write about them when they are dead’: Hate killings of black lesbians in South Africa

In her book ‘Femicide in South Africa’, journalist and researcher Nechama Brodie examines the violent history the country’s black lesbians have endured

A lab technician wearing a full body protection suit inspects a bottle containing growth media for virus production during coronavirus vaccine research at the Valneva SA laboratories in Vienna, Austria. (Photo: Akos Stiller/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Infodemic to infowar: The circus of disinformation will spin on

More people have died in South Africa from Covid-19 than have been murdered. This hasn’t stopped a misinformation pandemic from trying to misrepresent that reality

“I’m Yvette and I’m living with HIV,” she declares. “It’s important to me to introduce myself in this way. When I meet someone, I disclose my status first — even before revealing that I’m a mother.”

‘Where the governments see statistics, I see the faces of my friends’

Yvette Raphael describes herself as a ‘professional protester, sjambok feminist and hater of trash’. Government officials would likely refer to her as ‘a rebel’. She’s fought for…

When the Fees Must Fall movement erupted in October 2015, the discontent was not just about the fees. It was the threat of being excluded and obtaining the key that would lead to employment
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What comes after nationalism in Africa? A luta continua

There are a number of cases in the past decade where Africans have managed to push the conversation beyond liberal reforms as a political goal or did not spent all their energies…

There is a silent nostalgia for Mbeki to return to the country’s mainstream political discourse. (Oupa Nkosi/M&G)

Mark Heywood: ‘I was pitched against the very government I had fought for’

Activists litigated to force government to give HIV-positive people antiretrovirals. Mia Malan talks to Mark Heywood about the political consequences

Jacob Zuma’s political leadership on HIV and Aids is inconsistent.

​#AIDS2016: When last did you hear South African President Jacob Zuma say, ‘HIV’?

The country’s political commitment to the fight against HIV cannot be judged solely by the accomplishments of a few government departments.

Kiri’s first criminal act involved a stolen Coke

#AIDS2016: Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi admits that ‘key leaders were in denial’

South African health minister calls AIDS denialism an ‘unlucky’ moment for a country that has since become a leader in HIV treatment, prevention.

#AIDS2016: ‘Never again must the political meddling of a few derail progress’

The International Aids Conference returns after 16 years to a very different South Africa, but the battle against HIV is not yet over.

Snub Mbeki like he did Nkosi

About 35 000 babies could have been born without HIV had the president listened to the boy.

Patson Dzamara.

15 questions for Thabo Mbeki

Not 27 questions, as some other figures of authority face, but a mere 15 for the former president.

Mbeki deserves to be condemned by history, says TAC

The ex-president will be judged harshly for his unrepentant stance over an estimated 300 000 HIV-related deaths, the activist organisation says.

From critical condition to stable

The nation’s healthcare system reflects the actions of the ministers responsible for it over the years.

Letters to the Editor: March 30

Readers have shared their thoughts on why politics and business don’t mix and also on issues of homosexuality.

Making sense of the indefensible

Aids denialism was not just the hubris of Mbeki; it has emerged from a history of colonialism and science, writes <strong>Hein Marais</strong>.

Polygamy: It ain’t what it used to be

Dramatic Aids turnaround in store for SA

South Africa is expected to make a dramatic turnaround in Aids due to a change in government policies, a UNAids official has said.

Zille’s unprotected tweets

Has Helen Zille crossed a line? She’s called for men who refuse to use condoms to be charged with attempted murder. We track the latest Twitter storm.