Volume 4   Issue  38                      January   2005
Mandela Says Son Died of AIDS
The Age By Rory Carroll, January 8, 2005

Nelson Mandela broke one of South Africa's great taboos by admitting his oldest and only surviving son had died of AIDS. Makgatho Mandela, 54, died in a Johannesburg clinic on Thursday after lengthy treatment for an "undisclosed illness". Hours later his father, looking frail but resolute, assembled journalists in the garden of his home to confirm what everyone had suspected. "We must not hide the cause of death of our respected families because that is the only way we can make people understand that HIV is an ordinary illness. That's why we have called you today to announce that my son has died of AIDS," he said.

Flanked by his wife, Graca Machel, Makgatho's only surviving sister and two of his sons, Mr. Mandela, 86, said the only way to combat the virus infecting more South Africans was to talk about it openly. "Let us give publicity to HIV/AIDS and not hide it, because the only way of making it appear to be a normal illness just like TB, like cancer, is always to come out and say somebody has died because of HIV," he said. Political parties offered condolences and praised the courage of the announcement.

Some 5.6 million South Africans are infected with HIV or AIDS - a greater number than in any other country. The epidemic claims about 600 lives every day. Yet the shame attached to it is so great that sufferers often refuse to seek treatment. HIV tests are resisted and families routinely deny the cause of death of relatives. South African President Thabo Mbeki was accused of pandering to prejudice when he claimed in 2003 that he knew no one who had died of AIDS. Mr. Mandela's announcement was an implicit rebuke to his successor.

"It gives a very bad reflection of members of a family if they do not come out bravely and say 'a member of my family has died of AIDS'," said Mr. Mandela. "It is better to maintain your integrity and your dignity by saying, 'I am suffering from this disease'. That to me is the proper approach. It serves no purpose to hide the illness from which you are suffering." By contrast, Mr. Mbeki has questioned whether HIV causes AIDS. Until last year his Government refused to distribute anti-retroviral drugs that arrest development of the syndrome.

Only a handful of other politicians, such as Zambia's Kenneth Kaunda and South Africa's Mangosuthu Buthelezi, have told of losing relatives to the disease.

When Makgatho was admitted to hospital last month, discreet but widespread speculation about his illness began. Mr. Mandela acknowledged that the rumors partly forced his hand. Makgatho kept a low profile while working as a lawyer for Standard Bank but was in the news last year when his wife, Zondi, died of pneumonia, which can be connected to AIDS. The couple leave three sons.

Mr Mandela had rued ducking the HIV pandemic when he was president from 1994-99, saying his administration was distracted with nation-building and shirked tackling such a sensitive subject.
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