Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

AIDS has killed 1.7 million people in South Africa, including two children of the country's Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, reports Xinhua. The country, with a total population of some 45 million, tops the list of nations hardest hit by HIV/AIDS around the world, a report by Statistics South Africa said. Buthelezi has been praised for his bravery to tell the public the cause of his children's death after his 53-year-old son died in April and 48-year-old daughter died this month of AIDS-related illnesses. He warned South Africans that HIV/AIDS affects all, despite lifestyle. "Only the most naive can continue to believe that they are not going to be directly or indirectly affected by HIV/AIDS because of its being allegedly limited to the poorer reaches of our nation, or those with particular sexual orientations," Buthelezi was quoted as saying by the South African Press Association.

He told Parliament that the disease has destroyed his family, "in spite of the lifestyle stringently maintained by my wife and me and the social status we enjoy." Buthelezi blamed the government for failing to make HIV/AIDS a national emergency. AIDS, as well as crime, unemployment and poverty, should be treated as a national crisis and receive "the overwhelming allocation of public spending," he said. Meanwhile, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) estimated the extent of HIV/AIDS among its soldiers at 23 percent, an official said. The estimate was based on tests conducted on personnel being assessed for deployment on foreign peacekeeping missions. The proportion was even higher than South Africa's average HIV prevalence rate, estimated to be 15.2 percent in 2004 by Statistics South Africa. The Democratic Alliance (DA) has appealed to the government to curb widespread myths about the disease after a mother axed her two-year-old for reportedly contracting the disease. She thought he was infected with HIV and was therefore possessed by the devil.