Archived 2007 Articles about HIV & AIDS

‘Carry condoms in case of rape’
– Barbara Cole, Daily News, 2 May 2007

Women should get their rapists to use condoms if they can — and the law should be changed to protect them if the case comes to court, Pieter-Dirk Uys told the World Congress of Fertility and Sterility in Durban on Tuesday.

The entertainer urged women to carry a condom in the event of a rape and said that the rapist would probably say in court that “she gave me a condom” (implying consent which could be used as a defence).

“We’ve got to change that law. That’s what democracy means. It’s designed to protect our women and children,” said Uys, who has told more than one million pupils in 700 schools over the past six years about the “minefield” of HIV and Aids.

While Uys had his audience laughing, especially with his impersonations of former presidents P W Botha and Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, his message was deadly serious.

He told the packed audience at the International Convention Centre that South Africa was losing 1 000 people to Aids every day and while they were at the conference, “we will have had four 9/11 situations in our country”.

Apartheid was the first virus that afflicted South Africa. HIV and Aids was the second. It was the “new genocide” and worse than people thought as there were countless people who were sick, who did not know the cause.

He told how some people mistakenly believed that they would be cured if they had sex with a virgin.

“We laugh because we can’t believe that people believe that. Rape is not a cure for anything,” he said, calling for communication to dispel incorrect rumours.

It was up to leaders and entertainers to speak out, he said.

During his impersonation of Mandela, he held up a condom and advocated safe sex and said that the struggle was not yet over for South Africa. People needed to be told that there was life beyond HIV. It was a life sentence, not a death sentence. Once they knew that they had HIV, the next step was to look after themselves.

“I’m 61 and might think that I can’t get it. Oh crap, of course I can. This is just a virus, not a tsunami.”

Uys said that if one fewer Soccer World Cup stadium was built, it would free up money to perfect the female condom, enabling billions of women around the world to protect themselves.

The government had distributed 44 million condoms, but that was enough to “sort out Friday night”, he said, going on to say that condoms in South Africa were the wrong colour for the majority of users.