11 June 08

By Keotshepile wa Mogotsi

A GROUP of Mogale City residents from across the municipal area braved the winter chill to gather at the Nelson Mandela Hall in Tarlton, to learn more about the HIV/Aids pandemic.

With a focus on education, the gathering was held in the form of an HIV/Aids workshop and candlelighting ceremony. The programme started later than expected, mainly because of the late arrival of buses, but members of the public and various choirs kept people’s spirits up by singing chorals spreading messages about the dreaded virus.

People came from as far as Magaliesburg, Muldersdrift, Hekpoort, Kagiso and Munsieville to attend the event. It was organised by the communicable diseases section of the City’s social services directorate, carefully managed by the dynamic Elisabeth Masina, a communicable diseases co-ordinator.

At the latest gathering, activists who publicly disclosed their positive status, urged others to be tested so that they would know their status.

An HIV/Aids activist and member of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) who openly disclosed his positive status, Eric Radebe, lashed out at government officials for promoting discrimination against infected and orphaned children. “Government officials must stop referring to children who have lost their parents to the disease as ‘Aids orphans’. That is a pure discrimination,” he said.

Radebe also urged people to visit their local clinics and be tested.

Cheerful songs of praise raised everyone’s energy, and Sana Madikwe, who works as a clerical assistant at an Aids programme in Muldersdrift, stirred the emotions when she loudly said that the gathering was also to unite people to fight the disease.

“We are gathered here to form partnerships with people living with HIV/Aids and also to follow the provincial strategy to reduce the infection. [But] most importantly, we are gathered here to unite so that we can fight this disease.”

Twin Xaba, a former senior nurse in Mogale City and now a member of the TB Free programme, shifted the focus from HIV/Aids to speak about tuberculosis. TB was a collaborator with HIV/Aids. “As the TB Free programme, our vision is to see a TB free South Africa and our primary objective is to train communities about TB,” she said.

“We want to ensure that people diagnosed with TB follow their treatment and that they take their medication in accordance with doctors’ prescriptions.”

Also keeping a sharp eye on the proceedings was Nando Tlou and Priscilla Lekgetho, from Mogale City’s employee assistance programme, and a number of peer educators who work for the municipality. Elisabeth Mafonyane spoke about the West Rand social development programme.

The day ended with a candlelighting ceremony, and a prayer was said for those infected with and affected by the virus, and for those who had died from Aids-related illness.