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HIV & AIDS

articles from 2002

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'Aids won't affect me!'

– Willem Jordaan, Beeld, 9 April 2002

Cape Town — Sex is King. "Everyone is interested in sex. Nobody cares about politics, sex however, is something that happens to every single person. Our only reason for being here is sex. Sex is the wheel of life, as is turns we are spilt out...

"Unfortunately sex is not only the most pleasurable, easiest, most general hobby; it's also the most dangerous."

Speaking about sex and HIV/Aids at the conference was Pieter-Dirk Uys, the man behind Tannie Evita Bezuidenhout. His Aids awareness performance, for instance, was banned from the campus of the University of Potchefstroom for being "unscientific". But Uys is back again with appeals that the issue should be addressed openly.

"I don't want to waste time with Thabo Mbekivillian politics. The man is ludicrous. He will be held accountable some day for leading his government astray in his people's moment of need. More blacks have died of Aids than during apartheid!"

He added that Aids is also prevalent among Afrikaners and the Afrikaans community and Uys is particularly concerned that this community refuses to talk straight and call the issue by its name. The "sis syndrome is alive and well".

Over the past year he confronted 200 schools and 400 000 South African pupils with the message: "Know what happens with sex, in order to make a decision. You are never too young to realise each one of us is in control of our own life. Nobody is going to help you. Help yourself."

"What is your problem? Not sex! It's sis! 'Sis! Pieter-Dirk Uys encourages children to use condoms ... Our children should remain chaste until they marry!? Hullo, on what planet are you living?

"They snarl: 'Who do you think you are, to come to our schools discussing sex with them? I'll talk sex to my children when I'm ready!" Yes, Parent — when you're ready, it's too late. We are not talking about next week; we are talking about now. Today. Since tonight lies ahead. And sex is bound to happen."And here we are once again at the KKNK. And roughly 65% are under the age of 25. And believe me, they are not here for the culture of Breyten or Amanda and David Kramer or Uys Krige or Langenhoven. They come here for the amazing evening atmosphere of the Little Karoo, to drink two or more glasses of wine, smoke a zoll or six, swallow a pill. And then to have sex.

"And if that offends anybody, fly back to the planet you came from.

"Do white Afrikaners still think they are the chosen ones? That our children do not participate in those activities? That Afrikaans children, unlike all other children, are not sexually active?"

Uys added that everything children see is connected to sex: "Advertisements for jeans show the man with a flat stomach and the woman with tits. Advertisements for cars have that same flat stomached woman with the tits. Lawn mowers? Flat stomach and tits! Soap operas on television deal exclusively with sex. Even Big Brother was about sex: "When will they do it?"

"Are we then amazed when they start experimenting at the age of eight, nine years?" If sexual survival techniques are not regularly discussed 'they are not likely to survive', Uys warns. "The safest sex is no sex. But sex will happen. Therefore know this: you can say no, if you know what it means! Find out what it means. Ask. Don't be shy to say I don't know what it is."

"We have to talk to each other even though we find it unpleasant!... We should have had this talk ten years ago. I hope today is not too late."

Minnie van Rooyen a health care worker involved in an HIV/Aids programme said in her discussions with these communities it appears that the dangers of the HI virus is largely ignored.

"I'm not at risk as I'm from an Afrikaans church," is the attitude throughout. She noticed the same denial when addressing Afrikaans schools over the problem: "Tannie, you should not talk to us, you should go over there to the darkies."

Medi Clinics group chairperson Dr Edwin Hertzog said HIV/Aids is likely to cause much pain and suffering at emotional and community levels, however, economically no clear-cut predictions are possible.

The most general predictions are: since the virus affects economically active members of the population, productivity is likely to drop, absenteeism is likely to increase, medical costs will rise, buying power will decrease, investors confidence will decline resulting in less fixed investments, the highly skilled will increasingly emigrate, tourism will decline and the general economic activity of the rand will fall.

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