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Media, Method, Message
Media, Method, Message follows the story of Beat It! the worlds first HIV/AIDS magazine programme. Narrated by the shows co-creator and director Jack Lewis, we see how Beat It! worked towards removing the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS and addressed the concerns of real people living with AIDS through documentary inserts and an in studio HIV+ support group.
Narrator: Siyayinqoba Beat It! is a pioneering HIV/AIDS education series. The first TV magazine programme presented by people living with HIV/AIDS.
2006 Ep. 7 - Shalom Ncala: Molweni, sanamukela ku-Siyayinqoba Beat It! support group. Igama lam ngingu-Shalom Ncala. Kuleliqembu lokusekela le-Siyayinqoba Beat It! sonke siphila negciwane le-HIV. Sihlangana njalo ngeviki ukuba sixoxisane ngezinto ezithinta impilo yethu maqondana nge-HIV, ukusuka kwezocantsi kanye nomuntu ongenwe yigciwane ukuya ekubhekaneni nokukhishwa inyumbhazana nokungavumi. I-Siyayinqoba huhlelo lwakho lokuphila ngcono ne-HIV. Uma uphila negciwane le-HIV, noma unomlingani, ilunga lomndeni, noma umngani osengenwe yigciwane le-HIV, i-Siyayinqoba ngeyakho. {IsiZulu} [Hello and welcome to the Siyayinqoba Beat It! support group. My name is Shalom Ncala. Each week we get together to discuss issues that affect our lives with HIV, from nutritional supplements to sex and sexuality. Siyayinqoba is your guide to better living with HIV. If you are living with HIV, or you have a partner, a family member, or friend who is HIV positive, Siyayinqoba is for you.]
Narrator: Siyayinqoba Beat It! speaks to a million people a week infected and affected by HIV/AIDS in South Africa.
Media, Method, Message.
1999-2005
Jack Lewis: We would like to take you on a journey through six years of production of Siyayinqoba Beat It! an HIV/AIDS TV magazine programme devoted to promoting treatment literacy, human rights and openness surrounding HIV and AIDS. Siyayinqoba started as the idea of a group of activists working together in 1999, growing increasingly angry about the silence and lack of access to treatment for people living with HIV and AIDS. It was clear that in South Africa in 1999 the HIV epidemic was giving way to an AIDS epidemic and Siyayinqoba Beat It! aimed to do something pretty much unparalleled and that was use the national media to echo a movement on the ground that was seeking to secure and promote the rights of people living with HIV and AIDS. We hope that you will find this an inspirational journey in which we look at creative ways in which national television media can be used to serve the cause of treatment literacy and treatment for HIV and AIDS.
First beat it title sequence
Jack Lewis: Our first programme was broadcast in 1999 on the free to air station E-TV, with Mercy Makhalemele and Sipho Nhlapo as our hosts. The format of the programme was to combine a group of people living with HIV with documentary inserts. In this very first programme we bought together over 50 people living with HIV and AIDS to appear on national television for the first time
1999 Ep. 1 - Mercy Makhalemele: Welcome to your first Beat It! programme.
Sipho Nhlapo: Siyanamukela ehlweleni lokuqala iBeat It! phecelezi yinqobe. {isiZulu} [Welcome to the first episode of Beat It! - just beat it.]
Mercy Makhalemele: Yinqobe yihlwelo lami nawe kuze sazi ukuziphilisa ngengciwane lengculaza. {isiZulu} [Beat It! is our guide to better living with HIV and AIDS.]
Sipho Nhlapo: To kick off Beat It! We have invited into the studio 50 people living and affected with HIV/AIDS, their partners, families and friends from all over the country to talk about their expectations of Beat It! and what they feel are the biggest challenges facing the HIV/AIDS community and our country.
Mercy Makhalemele: So let's hear from the audience; ukuthi {isiZulu} [that]. How did you get to know about your HIV status?
Joyce Malupang: My name is Joyce Malupeng, mine is also a different story, I was raped and I was breastfeeding a two month old baby. They did not tell me ukuthi [that] they were going to take blood form me for HIV test and for me it was difficult because abangitshelanga lutho [they didn't tell me anything] and the only thing I knew about AIDS it was that Iyabulala [that it kills] so I was scared ukuthi [that] I'm going to die. {isiZulu}
Audience member: {isiZulu} [When you walk down the street, people who know you have AIDS will point and say "There goes that guy who has AIDS". They even tried to kill me when I went out doing HIV education. I was explaining having HIV doesn't mean you are bony & sickly.]
Jack Lewis: Our very first documentary insert concerned the murder of AIDS activist Gugu Dlamini after she had disclosed her HIV/AIDS status
1999 Ep. 1 - Narrator: Gugu Dlamini was a 36 year old single mother from Kwamaneza a township near KwaMashu. Inspired by the disclosure of others, Gugu publicly declared her HIV positive status and worked on behalf of the Disclosure and Acceptance Campaign in her township. She became an outspoken anti-AIDS activist.
Narrator: Gugu Dlamini was assaulted twice on the 12th of December 1998.
Prof. Ronald Louw: Any threats against an HIV positive person, threats against their physical safety or their life, I think the threats are totally unacceptable. Never can we tolerate that.
Narrator: Afraid to go home alone and waiting for police to arrive Gugu came to this shebeen near her home. She told people here of the attack on her, she named the man responsible and warned that he might try to kill her. Later that evening in the same shebeen, Gugu was again confronted by a man who physically attacked her. She was taken outside and battered unconscious.
Jabulani: When they hit her they asked her: "How many people they die with you?"
Narrator: After the attackers were done they sent a message telling her boyfriend: "You can come fetch your dog. We are finished with her."
Prof. Ronald Louw: The HIV/AIDS issue needs to become a human rights issue. We need to see it as much more than an education issue, much more than a safe sex issue, it's a political issue, it's a campaigning issue, it's an issue affecting everybody in their daily lives.
Mercy Makhalemele: It is vital that Gugu's killers are brought to justice. If Gugu's death goes unpunished it will send out a message to those living with HI virus that it is indeed not safe to come out with their HIV status.
Jack Lewis: Some of you may have noticed the HIV positive t-shirts which appeared briefly in that insert, these t-shirts, which became a symbol of openness in the fight against HIV and AIDS, were first produced in response to the murder of Gugu Dlamini and were first worn at the opening of Parliament in 1999.
Profile: Christopher Moraka
Jack Lewis: In this insert you will meet Christopher Moraka, one of the first leaders of the treatment action campaign and the first person living with HIV to give evidence to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health. He spoke to the committee about the high cost of Diflucan, Pfizers patented medicine, which was necessary to treat the oral thrush from which he was suffering. Later Christopher's name became associated with the access to cheaper generic versions of patented drugs, not only for Diflucan but also for ARVs as well.
2000 Ep. 2 - Christopher Moraka: {IsiXhosa} [I'll speak in my own language. I'm HIV positive. I was diagnosed in 1996. In my community, we with HIV are abused. Let me turn to the pharmaceutical companies. Companies like Pfizer make a lot of profit. In 1999 Pfizer made R6,5 billion profit. We asked them to lower the price of drugs because we HIV positive people suffer the most. Other people don't feel this pain. They want to make profit, you see?]
Mkhanyiseli Mpalali: U taChris, ebefana okanye ebeyintsika kuthi, kwi-branch okanye isabela senyanga nombutho i-Treatment Action Campaign, ngoba endleleni kwizinto ezininzi, u taChris besomeleza. {IsiXhosa} [Chris was a pillar to us in Nyanga Branch and the Treatment Action Campaign, because on our way forward, in many aspects, Chris strengthened us.]
Narrator: Christopher Moraka died on the 27th of July this year. His funeral took place at Nyanga on 6th of August. Those present vowed to remember him for his courageous spirit in the fight against HIV and AIDS.
Jack Lewis: In 1999 we still felt free to play. One of the ideas that we came up with was the Red Noose and Red Ribbon award. The noose went to an organisation or an individual who had committed some outrage against people living with HIV and AIDS while the ribbon was a pat on the back for somebody doing good work. Here Sipho and Mercy give out the noose to the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association who were opposing the attempts of the South African government to pass a medicines act which would have bought down the price of access to medicine.
2000 Ep. 2 - Paddy Nhlapo: Now it is time for us to present this week's Red Ribbon and Noose Awards.
Mercy Makhalemele: Right, the Red Noose which goes to someone who has disregarded the rights of someone living with HIV and AIDS, so let's start with the Noose. This week we are pleased to present the Noose to the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association and their hired gun, none other than Mirryena Deeb, for resuming their court case against our government. They have decided to go on with the case with the aim of keeping the cost of AIDS medicine high at the expense of the Pos Community. We think this is shameful, and they really well deserve the Noose. Asibahange. {IsiZulu} [Let's hang them.]
Paddy Nhlapo: Moving on to happier things; this week's Beat It! Red Ribbon Award for an outstanding contribution to the struggle against HIV and AIDS must go to Sister Matinisi at Khayelitsha Michael Mapongwane Clinic. It is these dedicated healthcare workers, like her, who will make it possible for a national mother-to-child-transmission prevention programme to be rolled out nationally.
2000 Second series title sequence
Jack Lewis: As we worked on the second series of Siyayinqoba Beat It! in the year 2000 it became apparent that the South African government was digging in it's heels against all forms of treatment that involved antiretrovirals, even the newly proven prevention of mother to child transmission protocols.
Special Report: MTCT prevention update
2000 Ep. 7 - Adeline Mangcu: The only person who I am proud to say, or very ashamed to say, who got infected through me, is my baby who died in 1995. Think about this: 160 babies are born HIV positive every day, and the government is saying no to AZT.
Dr Hermann Reuter: I want to ask her how she, from the Ministry of Health, is going to lead this partnership to implement a national programme in mother-to-child-transmission. Is she going to question science, or is she going to implement the programme?
Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang (Minister of Health): We are waiting for the scientists, the researchers, to come and give us a written report so that we can start it together. But also, WHO is saying to us: "There are issues of resistance". So, hamba kahle {IsiZulu} [Go well] don't rush, we are going to call yet another meeting so we can fully understand what this all means.
Zackie Achmat: The first reason that the government's dragging its feet is that it's found itself in an ideological muddle of whether HIV causes AIDS, and that is completely unacceptable.
Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang (Minister of Health): And in any case, we don't believe that the only way to prevent mother-to-child-transmission is by using antiretrovirals.
Jack Lewis: It's extraordinary that one should have to speak of a struggle for prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV, yet the campaign for this proven protocol became one of the main forces driving the growth of the Treatment Action Campaign and a major subject handled in several inserts by Siyayinqoba Beat It!
Thailand: No Patience for Patents
Jack Lewis: At the end of the World AIDS Conference in Durban 2000 the Treatment Action Campaign announced its intention to bring in cheap generic fluconazole from Thailand. Fluconazole is the drug used for treating oral thrush, but this campaign was never about access to generic fluconazole only, it was always about access to generic medicines in general with the prize being cheap generic antiretrovirals.
2000 Ep 9 - Zackie Achmat: On Sunday 9th of July we mobilized a historic coalition, we led a march to demand HIV/AIDS treatment access. More than five thousand people joined the march, representing organisations with millions of members worldwide. We will prepare a defiance campaign against drug companies by importing good quality generic medications, including fluconazole, and ensuring that they are available to healthcare facilities for appropriate use. None of us here have the intention of breaking the law, and we don't believe that we will be breaking the law. What we will be doing is breaking Pfizer's patent, we will be showing that Pfizer and other companies are abusing their patent. We have no criminal intention. Our only intention is to defend people's lives
Bangkok, Thailand October 2000
Krisana Kraisintu PhD (Chem) (Head of Research & Development Institute, Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO): You know that the cost of manufacturing and the cost of raw material of one capsule of fluconazole is only four Bahts (sixty six cents), only four Bahts per capsule I'm talking about two hundred and eighty seven Bahts initially of the price. So if we are selling at six Bahts (one rand). Profit two Bahts (thirty three cents) per capsule; that's a lot.
Rachod Thakolsri: We have driven the price down for more than twenty times as well. The price situation is Thailand back then was very expensive. Of course, Pfizer doesn't really happy about it.
Paul Cawthorne (Head of Mission, Medecins Sans Frontieres: Thailand): So this is generically made Fluconazole, made in Thailand.
Zackie Achmat: This at the moment is sold to the government by Pfizer for four thousand five hundred rand. A single box that we're taking back to South Africa costs R88.50.
Mercy Makhalemele: Right now, on to the support group.
Paddy Nhlapo: One of our regular viewers wrote in asking if our support group was actors or real HIV positive people. I only wish we are acting, but we are not. Everyone in the support group is really living with HIV.
Jack Lewis: In this next insert you will meet Busisiwe Maqungo who became a leading member of the Siyayinqoba support group. As the programme developed the support group assumed greater and greater importance in the life of the show. People in South Africa, Africa and everywhere in the world consult traditional healers and Beat It! has always promoted a position of dialogue and openness between traditional healing and modern medicine. Traditional healing can play a particularly important role in psychological and social dimensions in dealing with HIV and AIDS.
Support Group: Traditional Healing
2000 Ep. 12 - Busisiwe Maqungo: To be honest with you people mna [I'm] not taking any advices nakubani nakubani na [from any, any person]. In fact, akhonto endiyenzayo nge-status sam ukuba ndatya le, ndathi, ndasebenzisa lena to prevent ukuba ndingaguli okanye ndingathini [There's nothing I do to treat my virus; like taking this or that type of treatment to prevent me from getting sick. I'm just sitting here, waiting for my doomsday, because I know eventually I'm going to die. And ever since umtanam wasweleka andisaboni isizathu sokuba ndibe ndi-stragglisha mna ndizi nyanga [my child died, I see no need to struggle to treat myself], I failed my baby and ...
Mercy Manci: Ngubani ingama lakho ke sisi, abakubiza ngalo abantu? {IsiXhosa} [What is your name: the one people use?]
Busisiwe Maqungo: Busisiwe.
Mercy Manci: Busisiwe.
Merci Manci: Sizaqalise ke Busisiwe, sikhe sibuze ke, awuqali mos ukuza, ukhe weza ngenye imini, anditsho? {isiXhosa} [We're going to ask the ancestors, it's not your first time here? You came once before. Am I right?]
Busisiwe Maqungo: Ewe {IsiXhosa} [Yes].
Mercy Manci: Uzomane usithi ke siyavuma, andithi nawe uzomane utsho njalo siyavuma, uyeva ke? {IsiXhosa} [You must say, I agree, I agree, are you going to say? I agree, do you hear?]
Merci Manci: Emveni koko ke, ndizocacisa ukuba athini amathambo, nivile, okanye amathongo. {IsiXhosa} [After that I'll explain what the bones tell us. Or what the ancestors tell us.]
Merci Manci: Vumani bo? {IsiXhosa} [Agree?]
Busisiwe Magungo: Siyavuma. {IsiXhosa} [We agree.]
Merci Manci: Kuthiwa masihambe emzimbeni womtwana bo, vumani bo? {IsiXhosa} [It is said we must explore the body the body of the girl, agree?]
Busisiwe Magungo: Siyavuma. {IsiXhosa} [We agree.]
Mercy Manci: Kuthiwa aniphilanga bo, vumani bo? {IsiXhosa} [It is said I am not well, agree?]
Busisiwe Maqungo: Siyavuma. {IsiXhosa} [We agree.]
Mercy Manci: Vumani bo? {IsiXhosa} [Agree?]
Busisiwe Maqungo: Siyavuma. {IsiXhosa} [We agree.]
Mercy Manci: Emakhosini amakhulu ngokunjalo bo, vumani bo? {IsiXhosa} [In the big ancestors, agree?]
Busisiwe Maqungo: Siyavuma. {IsiXhosa} [We agree.]
Mercy Manci: Vumani bo? {IsiXhosa} [Agree?]
Busisiwe Maqungo: Siyavuma. {IsiXhosa} [We agree.]
Mercy Manci: Vumani bo? {IsiXhosa} [Agree?]
Busisiwe Maqungo: Siyavuma. {IsiXhosa} [We agree.]
Mercy Manci: Emakhosini amakhulu ngokunjalo bo, vumani bo? {IsiXhosa} [Also in the big ancestors, agree?]
Busisiwe Maqungo: Siyavuma. {IsiXhosa} [We agree.]
Mercy Manci: Vumani bo? {IsiXhosa} [Agree?]
Busisiwe Maqungo: Siyavuma. {IsiXhosa} [We agree.]
Mercy Manci: Kuthiwa ngabe kwenze njani? Ngithanda ukuzibuza bo vumani bo? {IsiZulu} [It is asked what is happening, I'd like to ask myself, agree?]
Busisiwe Maqungo: Siyavuma. {IsiXhosa} [We agree.]
Mercy Manci: Emakhosini amakhulu ngokunjalo bo, vumani bo? {IsiXhosa} [Also in the big ancestors, agree?]
Busisiwe Maqungo: Siyavuma. {IsiXhosa} [We agree.]
Mercy Manci: Asihambe, sihambe kunjalo bo, vumani bo? {IsiZulu} [Let's explore and explore, agree?]
Busiswe Magungo: Siyavuma. {IsiXhosa} [We agree.]
Mercy Manci: Khuthiwa izinto zami zihambe zihambe zingahambi kakhuhle bo, vumani bo? {IsiZulu} [It is said things don't go well for me. Also in the big ancestors, agree?]
Busiswe Maqungo: Siyavuma. {IsiXhosa} [We agree.]
Mercy Manci: Kulungile ke, uyabona elithambo. Kuthiwa ke kufaneka ufumane imbhiza eyokuphuza kwenzele uba kuphele ukukhathala oku. Ukuze kengoku nako ukukhohlela oku, okusazawuvela ke nabo kuvimbeleke. Apha ke ngoku kuth'wa kuzafuneka uba ufuthe uphinde uhlambe enzela kusuke ke ngoku isinyama esi. Kodwa ke ngoku xa sesitsho amathambo, indaba yesinyama, kunomntu ekhaya owahambayo meaning that umntu owaswelekayo uvile ke mama, kodwa ke awahlamba, umhlambe usekhona apha kuwe. Kutsho ukuthi eliyeza liyi-oil, lizakunceda, liyi-oil. Thambisa ebusweni, hlikihla futhi nasentloko, nalo ke sithandwa sam, nalo ke. {IsiXhosa} Okay, do you see that bone? It says you must get a bottle of medicine to drink so that it takes away tiredness. This bone is going to prevent the coughing that you'll have. And this one: you're going to steam yourself and wash yourself so it takes bad luck away. But when the bones talk about bad luck, it means there is somebody at home who died. Somebody who died, did you hear me? But you didn't let him/her die, she/he is still inside you. This medicine is oily. It's going to help you with all your problems. Don't hurry. Do you hear me? Rub it on your face. And run it on your head. Here it is my love.
Busisiwe Maqungo: Kule ke yokuhlamba into yona, enyanisweni kulo nyaka lo sikuwo, ndiye ndashiwa ngumntwana wam. Ndabhalela ekhaya uba uye wafihlelwa apha. Ndabhalele udade wethu ngoba andinaye umama, ndamxelela. Wandithumela iitelezi naye athi mandihlambe isinyama. Ndayibeka, ndithe xa ndisithi, la mini afika ngayo, wafika ndingxamile ndiyofuna umsebenzi, andabinayo i-chance. Now ngosuku olulandelayo xa ndifuna ukuhlamba ngayo, andizange ndiyibone kuba ndingekayiboni nanamhlanje. Lilonke ndithetha ukuba andizange ndihlambe, yena wayeyithumele kuba esithi mandihlambe ngayo kuba kwenzeke lonto. {IsiXhosa} [The thing you said about letting the child go is true. In the beginning of this year I lost my child. After the child was buried here, I wrote a letter to my sister at home. As I don't have a mother, she sent me medicine to wash away the bad luck. And I put it away. The day she arrived I was rushing to look for work. I didn't have a chance. Now, the next day I wanted to use the medicine, but I couldn't find it till today. Which means the bad luck is still with me, because I didn't use the medicine after my child's death.]
2002 Third series title sequence
Jack Lewis: This new look logo marked the launch of the 2002 Beat It! series. In 2002 people in South Africa started to become aware of the depth of the governments reluctance to extend mother to child transmission prevention or any access to antiretrovirals. Under the leadership of the Treatment Action Campaign a mass movement started to develop. Siyayinqoba Beat It! attempted to echo and amplify that mass movement.
2002 Ep. 1 - Nombeko Mpongo: Hi, I'm Nobeko Mpongo.
Vuyani Jacobs: {IsiXhosa} [And I'm Vuyani Jacobs, and hello everyone at home.] {IsiXhosa} [Welcome to Beat It!, your guide to better living with HIV and AIDS.]
Nombeko Mpongo: Beat It! belongs to all the positive people and presents information the helps all of us to live better with the virus.
Vuyani Jacobs: Yes, most of us who are HIV positive have many questions, but don't know where to go for answers.
Nombeko Mpongo: I've got a question for you Vuyani, why are you wearing that t-shirt.
Vuyani Jacobs: These t-shirts make a point that you cannot know who is HIV positive, like me, and who's not.
Nombeko Mpongo: So we can all be positive about HIV, we are all affected by this virus and we can learn how to live with it and help others live with it.
Jack Lewis: In this next insert you can clearly see how youth in South Africa had reconnected in the spirit of the 1980's in the struggle against HIV and AIDS, even in schools.
2002 Ep. 1 - Ntombizodwa Mnyakami: [Most of the students didn't know that people with HIV can share the same chairs as they do. Because I am HIV positive... But now they know that even if you share the same chair, you can't get HIV. I think I can manage to convince them that an HIV positive person can live like them, have an education and be something in life.]
Vuyani Jacobs: We attended the vigil at Kamandhi hall, where Khosi disclosed her HIV status to the school and community for the first time.
Ntombizodwa Mnyakami: [I am Ntomizodwa Mnyakami. I am HIV positive. I was tested on the 15 August. Viva comrades, viva. After I was tested I wanted to commit suicide. Because I was HIV positive I didn't want to return to school. Vuyani and Peter from the Treatment Action Campaign told me not to think like that. "Come with us and join us." I am what I am because of them.]
Singing: What have we done, what have we done?
Jack Lewis: In 2002 the Treatment Action Campaign became the decisive force in HIV and AIDS in South Africa. Critical to this was the struggle around the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV and AIDS. The TAC bought a Constitutional court case to compel the government to make PMTCT available nationally. In this next insert you will see Justice Arthur Chaskalson, president of the Constitutional Court, hand down the seminal verdict which compelled the government to make this life saving protocol available. The verdict was important for another reason; it showed the power and promise of the South African Constitution.
Protesters demand the right to prevent mother-to-child-transmission of HIV.
Nombeko Mpongo: The Constitutional Court, the highest court in South Africa has ruled that you have the right to prevent passing on HIV to your child.
Constitutional Court, 5 July 2002
Court orderly: I call the case of the Minister of Health and others and the Treatment Action Campaign and others for judgement.
Arthur Chaskalson (Judge-President of the Constitutional Court): The steps that have to be taken to comply with the order that we make should be taken without delay. We make the following order: It is declared that:
Sections 27(1) and (2) of the Constitution require the government to devise and implement within its available resources a comprehensive and coordinated programme to realise progressively the rights of pregnant women and their new born children to have access to health services to combat mother-to-child-transmission of HIV. I hand in the judgement.
Tugela Ferry, Kwa Zulu Natal
Fareed Abdullah (Director of HIV/AIDS, Western Cape): The administration of a drug like Nevirapine is quite simple and it can be done really in any simple, basic maternity facility that has got a nurse and is able, you know, to store the drugs; some basic infrastructure.
Third patient: Ngathola ukuthi ngukhulelwe. Unurse wasitshela ukuthi kuneVCT fanele siyotesta siyo sheka igazi mawukhulelwe. Ngahamba ngafika ngangena kuVCT. Bafuza qala ukuthi uyavumelana ukuthi sikhuthathe igazi awupoqelekile. Ngavuma, emva kwalokho ngathatha igazi ngalinda imizuzwana emibalwa. Yaphuma imiphumela yami, ngathola ukuthi ngiHIV positive. Emva kwalokho sengikhulelwe, mawuna seven months uye ubuye uzosheka. Bazokunikha ipilisi lokhusiza umtwana, ngalithola mina lelo pilisi ngina seven months, ngaliphuza sengi, ngesikhathi kuqala umsikho uyaliphuza. Ngaliphuza kuqala umsikho ngatetha ngahle ingane, yangaba na nkinga. Bangi vuza ukuthi ngizoyicelisa ibele or ngizo phuzisa indemu bisi. Ngakhetha unguthi ngimicelise ibele. Ngimcelisa ibele akana nkinga akaguli, akanalitho nami angina nkinga. {IsiZulu} [I discovered I was pregnant. The nurses told us there was VCT and we should go for the blood tests when we are pregnant. I went to VCT; you are asked to give permission for a blood test; you are not forced. I agreed. Then I had the blood test and waited a few minutes. The results came back and I was HIV positive. When you are seven months pregnant, you come for a check-up; you get a tablet to help the child. I got the tablet when I was seven months pregnant. When you start going into labour, you take the tablet. I took it when I first went into labour. I gave birth safely and the child had no problem. They asked me if I was going to breast feed or formula feed. I chose to breast feed. I breast feed the baby; she has no problem. She is not sick or anything. I also have no problem.]
Jack Lewis: In case you are worried by the breast feeding shown in the last insert, Beat It! has done many programmes on breast versus bottle, explaining the lower transmission risks of formula feeding properly conducted, but we need to recognise that in many instances, such as Tugela Ferry, it is almost impossible to do safe formula feeding and the option of exclusive breast feeding needs to be recognised.
2002 Ep. 4 - Vuyani Jacobs: Nombeko what do you think is the most difficult thing for someone who tests HIV positive.
Nombeko Mpongo: Well, I think telling your partner that you are HIV positive is definitely one and the other must be the fear that you will lose your job if your employer finds out.
Vuyani Jacobs: You are right and those are the things for today.
Nombeko Mpongo: Let's join our Support Group and hear what Anthony and others have to say.
Jack Lewis: Because of its open and frank discussion of difficult subjects the support group started to assume a larger part in the life of the programme.
2002 Ep. 4 - Andrew Kendell: He had something to tell me, but he didn't say what it was and I had no idea what it could be and I had actually thought of all sorts of strange scenarios. None of them even close to the reality of what it turned out to be. And then finally he told me that he was HIV positive. And I thought about it for a moment and then I thought about if there are any implications. Had I done anything that I would have regretted and I thought really quickly about that but I knew right away that there was nothing that I had done that I would have regretted.
Anthony Fernandes: I think for me especially in the beginning was very difficult to tell someone I'm HIV positive. If I'm going to make the decision of saying I'm HIV positive, I'm going to be open about it and everybody can know about it then surely I have the responsibility to let them know before they get into the relationship. He didn't run away, he sticked. I said one of the things we going to do is we're going to talk about it at least. So when the occasion arise we don't have to fumble around and thinking oh should I have done that and not that. I said this is what you can do and this is what you cannot do. There is a certain risk involved from both sides. I think I was more worried that maybe I would slip up and infect him, but the more we talk about it and the more we practise safe sex the easier it really becomes.
Nomandla Yako: It is wise to tell the partner, the negative partner, before you get in relationship. I've been in two relationships with negative partners.
Bongiwe Mkhutyukelwa: Did you use a condom or did you tell your partner about your status?
Nomandla Yako: You know I wouldn't like to answer this question but I have too. You know I have two relationships. The other one is out of South Africa and the other one is here. The one who is out of South Africa knows that I am HIV positive, you know. The other one who is here doesn't know, I didn't tell him, but I introduced the condom.
Busisiwe Maqungo: If u [he] understand enough, akufanelekanga ukuba amudampe because okokuqala uyazi ukuba uyamthanda and mina kum into ebalulekileyo {isiXhosa} [he shouldn't really dump her, because in the first place, he knows that she loves him. And to me, what I think is important] is that she introduced condoms. That is the main thing.
Nomandla Yako: Okay guys, do I have to tell everybody that I'm HIV positive because I need a life also. I've already told you my stories before. I told two guys that I'm HIV positive but the affairs didn't work out. So, can you answer me that.
Busisiwe Maqungo: And I also tried that, to disclose to the people before I got involved with them then it never worked out. I just thought, no, time is moving.
Anthony Fernandes: Most people when they gonna find out about your status is gonna be shocked, is gonna wanna run away, is gonna say: "Why didn't you tell me?" It's best to try, again, from the beginning and say, there is something that I have to tell you: "I am HIV positive, Can you handle it?" If he can't then he is not the right person for you.
Vuyani Jacobs: When do you put out the issue of condom? Or do you put out the issue of HIV, because I put out the issue of condom because putting saying: "Okay listen I don't want any child. I don't want a child. I don't want anything to do with having a baby at all. So I'm going to use a condom." I'm not even telling this person: "Okay, I'm HIV positive." She end up coming and saying: "Listen Vuyani I'm not comfortable with this condom thing." And then you start using, having sex without a condom. And then it goes on and on and on. She gets infected, she gets sick; in front of my eyes she gets sick, she gets full blown AIDS in front of my eyes. Here I am, knowing that I've infected this person. I couldn't come again and say listen: "I think I gave you this HIV." Out of my mind. I had to go to my own grave with that, but I can't let anyone happen the same kind of situation. That's why it's openness surrounding HIV is quite a good thing. You don't need to open it up in the newspapers, TVs, everywhere, but it's good to family and in your own relationships.
Jack Lewis: In this next insert Vuyani and Nboko Mpongo, the hosts of the 2002 series, introduce a programme on post exposure prophylaxis. The announcement in April 2002 that government was supposed to make post exposure prophylaxis available for rape survivors was the first indication of the softening in the government's stance on access to antiretrovirals.
2002 Ep. 5 - Nombeko Mpongo: I wish government had done this sooner because I was raped and had no access to antiretrovirals and I got infected with HIV. Using ARVs to prevent infection is called post exposure prophylaxis or PEP for short. It can prevent a rape survivor becoming infected with HIV.
Nombeko Mpongo: In 1997 I was raped on my way to work and I didn't know at that time, I wasn't even sure that I was raped. It took me sometime to understand it and I went for the test after like three weeks. I didn't, I was still confused, I was very sick after the rape. I struggled with it and then I tested positive.
Nombeko Mpongo: Okay this is where I was in 1997 when I was raped. Okay ndafika ndizorepota icase. {IsiXhosa} [I came to report the case.] So people must report the rape cases to police stations, it's never like before everything is different now. You can prevent infection, you can survive.
Charlene Smith: I was very lucky because two weeks before I was raped I went to Chris Hani Baragwanath's prenatal HIV unit; I was writing a lot on AIDS and a fieldworker there who is positive, Florence Ngebeni, she said to me, the very last word, she said was: "Charlene sometime you must write about the fact that you need antiretrovirals after you're raped." And it was the last thing I wrote in my notebook and then I was raped two weeks later and battled to get antiretrovirals. I went to three different hospitals at the third hospital I grabbed the doctor in casualty and I said: "I want those drugs and I want them now."
Nombeko Mpongo: You have to force them, you have to tell them: "I've been raped. It is my right to have the medication. It is my right to get the treatment. It is my right to save myself from what I don't want to get."
Charlene Smith: In fact the Cabinet statement of the 17th of April says is: "Immediate access to antiretrovirals for rape survivors". I'm not sure what government means by immediate because we have seen no access to antiretrovirals for rape survivors.
Prof. Lynette Denny (Gynaecologist, Groote Schuur Hospital): The whole question of PEP is quiet complicated because are you going to get HIV because you are raped? What I would say to government is I understand their weariness and I understand their concern, however we are dealing with one of the highest incidences of rape in the world in this country and that's a fact, that's not, that's not fiction, that's a fact. We are dealing with a situation where we are dealing with a sexually transmitted disease that although today is treatable it is not treated in this country, it is also, today, incurable.
Nombeko Mpongo: I always tell people it is good. Go for it; use it. Some people don't even have access to these things, so while you have access use it. It is good for the people.
Jack Lewis: In the last insert you saw how Beat It! tried to popularise the right of rape survivors to post exposure phrophylaxis one government had made the concession. Similarly, in June 2002, Beat It! provided extensive coverage of the National Treatment Congress called by the Treatment Action Campaign. The congress was significant in providing a moment of unity between leaders of the churches, trade unions, people living with HIV and AIDS and most significantly members of government itself. All were united in calling for a national treatment programme.
Treat the people National HIV/AIDS Treatment Congress
Durban, 2002.
Willie Madisha (COSATU President): Welcome, I hope you'll be able to participate and ensure that indeed by the end of this conference we have been able to do something. We owe that to the people of our country.
Zwelinzima Vavi (COSATU Secretary General): This conference we look at options to ensure that our people have access to affordable and effective treatment.
Mark Heywood (TAC National Secretary): We are aiming to develop a South African National HIV/AIDS Treatment Plan. But in our minds is the belief that if we can succeed in this southern part of the African continent, we'll inspire other African countries to try to follow the same path.
Professor Malekgapuru Magoba (Former Head of the Medical Research Council): We have no public health policy and we have been bickering and debating and wasting time. We have spent ten years of that in this country to allow an infectious epidemic to entrench itself within our society.
Jack Lewis: The Treatment Congress happened at the height of the AIDS denialism fostered by president Thabo Mbeki's presidential AIDS panel, set up to question whether HIV was the cause of AIDS. A particularly poignant moment was the test of Zambian AIDS activist Winston Zulu, a member of the presidential panel, on his experience with AIDS denialism.
2002 Ep. 12 - Winston Zulu (HIV/AIDS Activist, Zambia): I'm a person living with HIV, I've been living with HIV for the last 12 years, since 1997 I was on antiretrovirals. Until one of the greatest people that I respect very much, one of my heroes Thabo Mbeki, made me start doubting, well he didn't make me start doubting. I've always wanted to be HIV negative and he sort of encouraged me to think in those lines. I decided to drop my drugs in the year 2000 and just wished HIV away. And it was kind of very stupid for someone to do but I think you will understand if you are living with HIV and you really want to live, say up to the age of Madiba and someone comes and say HIV has nothing to do with AIDS. It's very attractive and I got very attracted and decided to start denying that HIV caused AIDS. And that denial has been very costly to me and I'm very lucky to be alive now, at least on a wheelchair, because some of the people I was with in the panel, I'm a member of President Mbeki's Presidential Panel, some of them are dead now. I think about three people, we were together, are dead. And my CD4 count plummeted from 500 when I stopped taking the medications, to 36 in February this year, until I restarted and I'm able to stand now and speak to you.
The Most Reverend Njongonkulu Ndungane (Primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa): I must apologise for all people of faith. The church has committed the great sin of silence in the face of such discrimination and fear. And when it has spoken out, all to sadly, it has spoken out on judgement upon the sick. We now wish to make it clear and for all to hear that HIV and AIDS is not a punishment from God. We would remind both governments and pharmaceutical companies that it is a basic human right that all who require treatment have access to that treatment.
Thabo Cele (NAPWA & TAC Activist): I lost a partner due to HIV. It is because the treatment is very expensive. I knew that if we had money we could save that life.
Jack Lewis: Particularly important was the presence of senior members of the ANC and government at the congress. Present were Dr Zweli Mkhize, the Minister of Health in KwaZulu Natal, the province with the largest HIV epidemic in South Africa, Dr Nono Simelela, the director of the governments HIV/AIDS programme in the Department of Health and Dr Sadiq Karrim, a senior ANC spokesperson on health. Their presence represented the serious tensions within both party and state over the reluctance to commence an ARV treatment programme.
2002 Ep. 12 - Dr Zweli Mkhize (MEC for Health, KwaZulu Natal): That was quite intimidating. The seriousness of HIV/AIDS is actually well understood by everybody both in the ANC and government and as of my personal feelings that I have had the experience of relatives who are HIV positive, who are being looked after, who are being cared for and those who have actually passed away, I've had friends, I've had members of staff. So we are not really discussing an issue which is of a theoretical or academic nature. If out of this meeting we come out with a resolution to say in this province and any other province we want to come into partnership and work together on the programs in the community on mobilizing people to fight against HIV together with government departments, I would be with you. Thank you very much.
Zackie Achmat: Saadiq Kariem from the ANC's health desk.
Saadiq Kariem (ANC Health Secretary): I wasn't going to say that, I was going to say I'm Saadiq coming from Western Cape because I'm not officially meant to be here. But be that as it may. It's confusing to see the various structures of government operating, not talking to each other; the left arm doesn't know what the right arm is doing first of all.
Dr Nono Simalela (Head of HIV/AIDS unit, Department of Health): I want to pledge the commitment at least of the National Department of Health HIV/AIDS Unit to work in partnership, as Zackie says it's been heavy, it's been hard. The steeps are very high, the pain sometimes unbearable, but we see people here working towards finding solutions. I'm always optimistic, some of us do have ears to listen. Sometimes we might not be able to say we are hearing, but we're there and I think it's good to have some people inside to do the ugly work as you do the work outside that is easier to push. Remember we are out there working for the same goals and I wish you well and we're here, still working together.
Mark Heywood (TAC National Secretary): After two days of deliberations, the congress came to the following conclusions: The HIV epidemic has created an emergency in South Africa. This emergency threatens South Africa's future by creating more poverty and impacting negatively on our ability to reconstruct and develop South Africa to the benefit of all its people. A national HIV/AIDS treatment plan is needed to combat this emergency. A treatment plan will strengthen the existing five year strategic plan which concentrates mainly on prevention.
Jack Lewis: 2002 also marked the end of our association with the privately owned broadcaster e-TV. Without a broadcaster the future of Beat It! was very uncertain. But 2003 marked a major turn in the history of HIV and AIDS in South Africa. In February of that year the Treatment Action Campaign pulled together a march of over 20 000 people at the opening of Parliament. The march and the civil disobedience campaign that started afterwards clearly signalled to government that it was time to introduce an antiretroviral treatment programme or face electoral consequences. In August 2003 government announced that it was setting up a comprehensive ARV treatment programme. This programme came too late for many people living with HIV and AIDS, including TAC leader Edward Mabunda and many others.
Edward Mabunda: How can I sing a love song whilst my sister is dying? How can I sing a love song whilst my brother is dying? How can I sing a love song whilst my mother is dying? South Africa, now is the time to stand up for your rights. Treatment plan now.
March 2003
Edward Mabunda: The more they delay, the more people are dying. Because what we need to do now, we need to stop the new infections and we need to treat, give people antiretrovirals who are HIV positive.
2004 Fourth series title sequence.
Jack Lewis: In the changed circumstances bought about by the governments comprehensive HIV and AIDS treatment plan, after a year and a half off air, in October 2004 Siyayinqoba Beat It! was back on air, this time with the support of the national broadcaster.
2004 Ep. 1 - Jason Wessenaar: Molweni, siyanamukela kuSiyayinqoba Beat It! Support Group. Igama lam ngu-Jason. {IsiXhosa} [Hello. Welcome to the Siyayinqoba Beat It! Support Group. My name is Jason.] I am living with HIV. Every week I get together with other people living with HIV in the Siyayinqoba Support Group, to talk about issues that affect us, our partners, our family members and friends. So, if you're living with HIV, or know someone who is living with HIV, this programme is for you.
Jack Lewis: In the first programme of the first series we tried to define a model of advocacy and activism, showing how an individual activist could intervene in a hospital to secure access to treatment, in this case Fulconazole, a long running campaign, both within the treatment access movement and Beat It!
Special Report - Where's the fluconazole?
Indwe, Eastern Cape
Narrator: The Siyayinqoba team went to Indwe in the Transkei where we met up with Zoliswa, a treatment activist.
Zoliswa Magweju: I didn't sleep last night. I started writing a report to my colleagues out there: I would like to come as soon as I can to Indwe to start our education programme in this place... People here need some help. They are our people. Our people are dying.
Narrator: Together with Zoliswa we met Noluntu, who is HIV positive. Noluntu has been suffering from severe thrush. Oral thrush is an opportunistic infection of HIV which affects the mouth and can spread to the food pipe; making it hard to swallow. Noluntu's thrush was so bad she could hardly speak to us.
Zoliswa Magweju: Ingaba yi-treatment yantoni le ayisebenzisayo?{isiXhosa} [What is the name of the treatment she's taking?]
Older woman: Akana-treatment ngoku. {IsiXhosa} [She doesn't have any treatment.]
Another woman: Iinto azisebenzisayo yi-garlic ne-lemon juice. Akananto i-straight ingenye. {IsiXhosa} [The only thing she uses is garlic and lemon juice. There's nothing she's using actually.]
Zoliswa Magweju: Bekufanele nje apha ezibhedlele nasezikliniki zikhona iipilisi. Zikhona iipilisi ezinceda lento anayo kuthiwa yi-fluconazole. Ezoplilisi zikhona, zikhutshwa nje mahala azithengiswa. {IsiXhosa} [You are supposed, here in the hospitals and clinics, to have the pills. These pills are called fluconazole. The government got these pills and they give them free of charge.]
Dr Zimamele Fuzani (District Surgeon): When I first saw Noluntu Komani, her condition so serious. She couldn't walk, she couldn't talk, she couldn't swallow.
Zoliswa Magweju: From there I decided to go to hospital, to see the sisters, how do they treat people. I met a chief professional nurse. They took me for the rounds around the hospital.
Zoliswa Magweju: Why don't you order the necessary medication so that you can help, if we only know the reason why?
Sister Buyiswa Siquqo (Chief Professional Nurse): We must try and sort it out. We didn't know. And they are effective, really, as we hear from the books.
Zoliswa Magweju: We met the pharmacist, together with the medical manager. I asked her why doesn't she have the fluconazole....The pharmacist said:
Getruida Barry (Pharmacist): We know about it, but... the government didn't tell us now, do you know, to order it, and that's that.
Zoliswa Magweju: This is treatment for opportunistic infections. Each and every opportunistic infection is treated. No patient has to be sent home to die because there's no treatment for opportunistic infections. What I saw here was so painful to me and knowing that people are dying and that there's nothing that can be done. Treatment are there. There is treatment, it is there. By law, it is there. It has to be distributed to all of the hospitals for our people. But in some hospitals it's not there. For the reason I don't understand why it is not there in this hospital.
K. Labuschagne (Medical Manager): Nobody let us know about this, so.., but we're going to do something now, ja, ja.
Zoliswa Magweju: This treatment for opportunistic infections should be here next time when I come here.
Sister Buyiswa Siquqo: You can be very glad, because there is that...
Narrator: Two months later we went back to Indwe to find out if the local hospital kept their promise and started providing treatment for OIs of HIV.
Sister Buyiswa Siquqo: By using fluconazole, yes, for thrush it's very good and it's effective. Patients, once he has taken it, he also develop appetite. He started to have more appetite. So it was very effective, we are so happy to have it.
Noluntu: Mna ukugula kwam, ndagula nje ngento nje. Ndasuka ndenkxi into. Kwasuka kwarhaw'zelela nemiqala, yonke lonto. Kwabuhlungu, kwama. Ekubeni ke ngoku ndafumana lamayeza neepilisi, kwangathi kuba bhetele. Ezipilisi zithathe iintsuku eziyiyi-8, ndathanda nokutya, ndathanda nosebenza. Bendingathand'usebenza, soloko ndifun'ulala. Ewe ezipilisi zindincedile kwinto bendiyiyo kuqala. {IsiXhosa} [When I was sick, something was blocking my throat and smiling. My whole throat was itching. It was so painful. When I got the medicine, the pills; I got the pills, I got the medicine, I got better. These pills took only eight days to heal me. My appetite returned and I managed to eat. I wanted to work whereas before I didn't feel like working. I always felt like sleeping. Yes, these pills have helped me a lot, because I was in a very bad state before.]
Busiswe Maqungo: After watching uNoluntu lo nosisi lo ebehambela izibhedlele, I think okok'qala it shows that abantu abaphila nengculaza nee-activists...for ubomi babo. Because usisi lona uhambile waqond'ba abantu bayagula and begula yinto eno-treateka, just that akukho treatment yalonto leyo. And ngenxa yakhe kubekhona i-difference kwi-area yakhe. {IsiXhosa} [After watching Noluntu and the activist, it shows that, firstly, people with HIV and HIV activists, it's good that they have information, and what to do, I mean taking responsibility for their future. The lady in the insert saw that people are sick with something that can be treated, and she took the first step. Because of her, there was a difference in her area. This is something we can all do as HIV activists, positive and negative.]
Jack Lewis: Jason Wessenaar was now the host of the show. In this next insert we encouraged youth to speak out frankly about their experience of STDs and what they have learnt from that experience. As you'll see the support group plays an even more prominent role in the programme, commenting directly on everything they have seen. The support group and the viewer at home share the same experience and are drawn into the same world of discussion.
2004 Ep. 2 - Jason Wessenaar: We all know that HIV is transmitted sexually, but, did you know that any STI increases your chances of being infected with HIV?
LoveLife, youth friendly clinic
Mamoisile Welcome Qhosho (Healthcare Worker): [ The S stands for sexual, the T stands for Transmitted, the D satnds for Disease]
Young woman participant: [Those who don't get treatment for their STDs can they become HIV positive?]
Mamoisile Welcome Qhosho: [The possibility of getting HIV is very high when you have STDs, when you have STDs. If you have STDs, it tells us that you have little tears in your body. Those little tears make it easy to get HIV when you sleep with someone who has HIV.]
Bulelwa Vakala (Young woman participant): The reason why I didn't want to use a condom is because I didn't really believe that STDs existed. I didn't even trust using a condom because I wasn't going to get exactly what I wanted. When I didn't want to use a condom, I wanted to taste the original thing. I didn't want to get it in the plastic. I wanted to feel those sperms go inside me.
Vuyani Jacobs: When I started first having herpes, I was very embarrassed, and actually telling to these ladies at the clinic, are very beautiful, you just cannot tell to this lady, beautiful, beautiful lady, so you see that you've got this thing on your penis and you show it to them.
Nomandla Yako: Feeling embarrassed to go to the clinic when you have STI is delaying getting the treatment because when you have herpes to be treated with Acyclovir within 72 hours, so nxa wuhleli endlini [when you're sitting at home,] it happened to me as well in 1998. I think I had herpes, I had herpes, because I had a test for STDs but I had no STD, but herpes comes, even now, when I have stress, because I was shy to go to the clinic and show them I have herpes and people are talking, the nurses are talking there: "You are so young, you have these things, you see." Ndiya cinga ukuthi yalidishela ukuthi mandifumane i-HIV lula. {IsiXhosa} [I think that's why I contracted HIV so easily.]
Jack Lewis: We produced many success stories of people on antiretroviral treatment. Two that stand out for me is the story of Wiseman Gadu, a miner on one of the large mines in South Africa. His treatment was being paid for by his company, but his story indicates the potential of antiretroviral treatment. We also visited Jady Grasland, a young girl who had lived with HIV all her life and for the first time was experiencing good health now that she had access to antiretrovirals.
Beating HIV at work
Dr Petra Kruger: We estimated at that stage, with our current 40 000 employees, that about 30 % of them were HIV infected. We could estimate that a further 25 to 30 % of them were now at a clinical stage where they would require antiretroviral therapy. So you're looking at probably around 3 000 to 4 000 people at this point in time that require antiretrovirals within our organisation.
Wiseman Gadu: Apha e-Wellness clinic ndiza after two months, ndizobona ugqirha atsho ajonge uba impilo yam injani. {IsiXhosa} [I come to the Wellness Clinic every two months to see the doctor and to find out what is going on with my health.]
Dr Marius Keyser (Western Deep Levels Hospital): How's it going at work, all right? No problem with your job?
Wiseman Gadu: Yes
Dr Marius Keyser: Ja, dis alright, daar sy. {Afrikaans} [Yes, it's all good, there we go]. Your viral load was, in the beginning it was in January, when you started with treatment when you started with Combovir and Retrovir, it was 46 000, okay. Then you started on treatment, Combovir and Stockrin and the viral load, up to now, currently, is less than fifty copies in that drop of blood. Okay the CD4 count, your soldier cells okay, it went from 22 in December last year, to 176 so that's a very good response against the virus, okay.
Wiseman Gadu: Ndiyazikhumbhuza, zisoloko zihleli. Njeng'ba ndizitya nje ezipilisi, xa ndingena kuzikhathalela ukuphila kwam, akhomntu onondikhathalela. Kufuneka ndizikhuthaze mna. {IsiXhosa} [I remind myself, I am always aware when I'm taking these pills: if I don't take care of my health no-one else will do it for me. I must motivate myself.]
Wiseman Gadu: Into eyabangela ukuthi ndizithathe mna yilent'ba ndandithand'ba mandiphile ngoba ndisiva. Ndibona ukuthi abantu bayabhubha sisifo sikagawulayo. {IsiXhosa} [What motivated me to take the pills is; I want to be healthy because I saw a lot of people die in front of me in this epidemic of HIV and AIDS.]
Nosakhele Gabu (Wiseman's wife): Ndithe ndawudibana naye wandixelela uba u-HIV positive. Uthe wondixelela uba u-positive, ndiye ndanokwethuka ndaphinda ndaba ngabheka akukho kuthini ngoba ngumyeni wam, ayingomntu ndithandana naye. Ndaqond'ba andinomkhaba ngoba ngumyeni wam, ndofa apho afa khona. Xa ethetha ngoluhlobo, hayi ndiyamamkela noba unantoni. Ke nam ndiye ndaya ekliniki, akudalanga ndiyile. Ndiye phezolo, bekudala ke endiqhuba uba mandiye. Ndiyile ndayotshekha nam ndafumanisa uba nam ndi-positive. Mna ndifike seyestiya i-treatment kakade, nam ebeye andiphe ke, andinike ndisele. Uthi xa eselivini, sizitha sobabini ezipilisi, uye wanengxaki emsebenzini. Caba baye baziphawula uba ebengazisebenzisi yedwa, ngoba zikhawuleze zaphela. Utsho ukuthi bebezibalile ezi anazo. Besizitya sobabini, sizisebenzisa sobabini. {IsiXhosa} [When I met him, he told me he's HIV positive. When he told me, I was shocked. I tried to look around for help because he is my husband, not just anybody. I told myself that I can't throw him away. I will die where he dies. If he's talking like this, I accept him, no matter what he has. Even I went to the clinic. It wasn't long ago that I went there. I went yesterday. He is always advising me to go to the clinic to check. I went to check and found that I'm also HIV positive. When I came back, I found that he's already taking the treatment. He always shared his pills with me. He stopped doing it now because when he was on leave we shared his pills so he had some trouble at work when he wanted more. They noticed he didn't use the pills alone. They were finished quickly. They counted the pills he had received. We had taken the pills together.]
Theo Steele: We are looking at employers to provide treatment for the families as well, the dependents. And that's a major battle we have not won as yet. Employers do provide medical aids for their members, and those medical aids don't exclude the dependents, so what is wrong in providing treatment for the worker and for his dependents as well?
Children on Antiretrovirals
Jason Wessenaar: We are talking about children and ARVs. The Siyayinqoba Team travelled to Maraisburg in Jo'burg, where we met Jady Grasland and her foster mother Daisy. This is one story that really gives us hope that we can all beat HIV.
Khayelitsha, Cape Town
Children on anti-retrovirals beat HIV!
Daisy to Jady: Ja, se vir hulle. {Afrikaans} [Yes, tell them.]
Jady Grasland: Ek is Jady Grasland. Ek is nege jaar oud en ek is HIV positief. {Afrikaans} [I'm Jady Grasland. I'm nine years old and I'm HIV positive.]
Valda Roberts (Principle, Newclare Primary): In 2000, Daisy came to me and she said to me, Jady has AIDS. I got the permission from Daisy to disclose it to the grade one teacher because I felt that we needed to prepare the teacher. She had fears because it was the first time you, as a staff, had to deal with a child with HIV.
Jady Grasland: Ek leer somme by die skool. Dit gaan goed. {Afrikaans} [I'm learning arithmetic at school. It's going well.]
Daisy Grasland: 2000 toet sy skool toe gaan, was sy vol vrate .En kinders wat na haar gekyk het sy't altyd huil, huil huis toe gekom .En vir my gese Ma daai kind se dit en dit en dit.Ok, dan se ek maar net nee Jady "Los dit, los dit gaan net aan." {Afrikaans} [When she went to school in 2000, she was covered in warts. And children would look at her, she'd come home crying when kids said things to her. It'd tell her: ["Don't worry, just carry on."]
Dr Ashraf Coovadia (Paediatrician, Coronationville Hospital): The one intractable problem that we've had with Jady is the disfiguring facial warts that she's had, over the years that have just been getting progressively worse over the years. And we've tried a number of various medical, including surgical techniques to try and actually remove the warts and keep them off.
Dr Ashraf Coovadia: Whatever we've used has often worked for a short while, and the warts have recurred until we started antiretroviral therapy about two years ago. Since we've started antiretroviral therapy the warts have literally just melted away. We put her on three different drugs, she tolerated the drugs very well, she didn't have any major side-effects, her weight gain was quite good, her CD4 count which, for many years was very low, began to rise. Her viral load plummeted very soon after she started therapy. Her overall state of health has just improved enormously.
Jack Lewis: Since 1999 Siyayinqoba has dealt consistently with positive living, including nutrition, supplementation, stress management, exercise and substance abuse. Individual programmes have been devoted to all of these subjects. In this programme the support group gets around a dining room table and discusses all aspects of positive living.
2004 Ep 12 - Busisiwe Maqungo: We have green, we have red, we have yellow, we have brown, we have whitish.
Anthony Fernandes: What do you mean by that? I mean you just give colours but what do they stand for?
Dr Nombulelo Madala: If your plate is full of different colours of food, then it's most likely that you are covering all the important food groups. And basically, that's what we try and say in basic terms; terms that even a child can understand the need for variety when eating to make sure that you cover the different food groups.
Vuyani Jacobs: I really get worried when people say to me: "Hey you have HIV, now you need to watch your diet" and I'm like what is watching my diet? Is watching my diet not eating samp? Is watching my diet not going to a corner and having the head of a cow or the head of a sheep? Because when I'm in Khayelitsha, icala lenkomo okanye icala legusha, u-Smiley. {IsiXhosa} [I eat sheep's head there called Smiley] It's cheap and I love it.
Busisiwe Maqungo: Taking too much alcohol is not healthy for one. And with alcohol there's too much involved when you are HIV positive, not only that it's not good for your body but also if you get drunk, do you think you are going to stay on your ARVs in a very correct way? If you take them at eight, are you going to take, I mean at eight you are the shebeen?
Dr Nombulelo Madala: Yazi, zinintsi i-issues ngento ye-alcohol, kuyaphikiswana. Kona, kona i-alcohol iyayi-suppress i-immune system. {IsiXhosa} [There are many issues and arguments about alcohol. Alcohol suppresses the immune system] and that is a fact.
Prudence Mabele: I do yoga, four times a week. Nto engiyithandayo nge yoga iyakukhonekta in your body, mind and soul. So mawulokho uyenza lama push , uyabona ukhonekted and nom’cabango wakho u positive. Yoga iya affodeka . Kukhona abantu abakhonayo ukuthi baze kuma support groups bazoyiyenza for free, as i-class kukho izindawo zakhona ezi like lapho ba-teacher khona like wena mabuyo ejimini akudanga nalopho sihlala ngakhona. [What I love about yoga is that it helps me connect my body, mind and soul. So while doing the push, you’ll have positive thoughts. Yoga is affordable. There are people who come to support groups and do it for free. There are also places where they teach yoga not far from where people live] I find it very stress relieving. Enye futhi yi reiki, i-reiki healing of the hands. Mawu stressed yenzani izandla so ngicela ukuthi nithathe izandla zenu ne bamba lomuno wokuqala, dlula futhi,dlula futhi,dlula futhi, dlula,futhi, yenza kwesinye futhi. {IsiZulu} [There’s one called Reiki. Reiki is healing with your hands. When you are stressed, this is what you do…] If you do that for 15 minutes you will feel different.
Vuyani Jacobs: Yoga is a middle class thing.
Busisiwe Maqungo: I also used to think that meditation is for people far away until I went to the support group for the first time and that's where we were taught how to meditate. You do it on your own. In your bedroom, you sit in a relaxed way, you close your eyes, you think positively and there you go.
2005 Fifth series title sequence
Jack Lewis: When we heard that in a major hospital in Queenstown in the Eastern Cape only 50 people were on treatment whilst thousands were on the waiting list, many dying whilst waiting for treatment, we went up to investigate.
2005 Ep. 12
The state of the ARV roll-out
Report from Queenstown, Eastern Cape
Narrator: U Beat It! ukhulume no Caroline Songqushwa wase Queenstown. UCarloline ushanele ngushana wakhe ngesikhathi ukhuwaiting list yama ARVs. {isiZulu} [Beat It! spoke to Caroline Songqushwa from Queenstown. Caroline's niece died while on the waiting list for ARVs.]
Caroline Songqushwa: Ingama lami ndingu Caroline Songwqushwa, Ndilapha ndizalwele apha eQueenstown. Ipha bendizo wonga umntana wakha sisi wam' uNombulelo, usisi wam' ubhubhe ngo April zakha 15 kulonyaka. Abe abhumbile usisi wami ndishiyekhe no Nombulelo umtana wakha sisi, ifirst born yakha sisi wami oHIV positive. ARV bekafanele ukuba uzifumane ngo March, kodwa azange ukube nomuntu onemonde bebangamuhambeli aselapha edlini agula. Bendisokolo naye khemna apha edlini, kungekho into iyityayo, kungekho ubisi, nalephapha abayifumanayo bekangayifumani. Besekuzinyanga izine angayifumani leyopapa leyo. Ngenye imini ndahamba naye mna, bathi nxa ndithetha ndithi ndiyamuthethelela mna bathi uyakwazi ukuzithethela, ndaphuma mna ndamushiya. Most of the time bakaziyela yena ekliniki. Until ke angakwaxzi ukuhamba wahlala. Abazange bayi treater leyento bekangava izidlebeni, enizilonda emlonyeni, abazange bamutreater lezo zinto lezo. Goba bakaya nqco, Kuthwa igqirha uzafikanini, angafumani ugqirha. Abuye andixelele athi, ukube ndayazile ukuba ndihambele mahala,ngabe andiyanga andisakwazi ukuhamba amadolo wami abuhlungu asho afike alale. Ngoku uNombulelo wagula ke ngomgqibelo kusasa ndaze ndamubizela i- ambulance ndamusa eFrontier hospital. Bendihamba ke ndiyo mujonga apha eFrontier hospital kwabonakala ukuthi ukugula kuyanyuka kuye. Wazeke wanfishiya ngomhla kasevenkulenyanga. Ngoba mina besendinethemba ngedlela bendimubona ngakhona ebefit, esitya, engalahli ukutya, endibona ukuthi ubengabe bekayifumene lento ngabe uthixo undibolekhile naye nangoku ngoba banityi abantu abaphila negciwane behamba bayaxathula kodwa yena angakhathelwelwanga uthixo undewamuthatha. Ndingathatha ukuba abanakhatholo ngabantu, abantu abanandaba ukuba abatntu bayaphila ngoba abanamusebenzi nabo so long barigth bona kwelinye icala abantu abagulayo nge HIV abanamusebenzi nabo kanti abantu abagula neHIV ngabantu nabo siyabathanda. {isiZulu} [My name is Caroline Songqushwa. I was born here in eKhomane, Queenstown. I came here to look after my sister, who died on the 15th of April this year. She left me her first born Nombulelo, who is HIV positive. She was supposed to start ARVs in March but no-one had patience at the clinic and there were no home visits. It was difficult because there was nothing for her to eat, the porridge that she used to get from the clinic was finished already. Once I accompanied her to the clinic but when I tried to talk, they said that she could speak for herself. So most of the time she went by herself to the clinic until she could no longer walk, then she stopped going. She couldn't hear very well and she had sores in her mouth, but that was never treated, even though she went to the clinic often. She would come home and say: "If I knew I would return empty handed I wouldn't have gone. "I can't walk, my knees hurt" and then she would go to bed. Nombulelo got sick one Saturday morning. I phoned for an ambulance to take her to Frontier Hospital. I visited her regularly at the hospital but her condition deteriorated. She died on Thursday the 7th of July. It hurts because I had hope she was regaining her strength, she was eating. If only she had gotten the medicines, she would still be alive. I see many people walking the streets living with HIV but because she wasn't cared for, God took her away. I think the government doesn't care if people are living or dying as long as things are looking bright on their side, but people with HIV are still human begins and we love them.]
Nozuko Smile: Macomrade, ndingu Nozuko wakaSmile apha kwaChris Hani, Ndibaxelele ukuba iARVs ezi ndiyazifuna ndiselungelwelweni ukuba ndizifunane and isizathu ukuba bandibekhe ku waiting list ixesha elinde kangaka andisazi. {isiXhosa} [Comrades, my name is Nozuko Smile and I live here in Chris Hani. I want to get ARV treatment and I know that I have the right to get it. I don't know why I have been on the waiting list for so long.]
Linda Mafu: We are here to say: "Begin to save our lives! It is our human right, it is in the Constitution." Sizothi apha, I resources azingaka kutheni singabantu abayi 192 singafunani iARVs kulendawu. Sizothi apha kutheni apha abantu abayi 52 balinde iARVs. {isiXhosa} [We are here to say, with so many resources, why is it that there are only 192 people on ARVs at the hospital? We are here to ask why 52 people have died waiting for ARVs.]
Lebohang Mosia (CEO Frontier Hospital): We will not be able to actually respond to the issues which are actually contained here, the only thing that we can do is to say to you today is that we will forward the letter to the province okay.
Linda Mafu: Asiphumi apha singaxolanga. Ukuba ikho imanagement ufuneke andibene nayo hayi ndigunduka ngo eigth ibusukhu namhlanje akukhonto, so singahlala athathe ixesha lakhe tata take your time. {isiXhosa} [We are not going anywhere unsatisfied. If needs to consult with management, that's no problem. I'm going home at 8pm tonight, so we can stay. He can take his time, so take your time.]
Narrator: Emva kwamaviki amabili iTreatment Action campaign yaphindela emva eFrointier Hospital ukuze bathole impendulo mayelano nesicelo sabo. {isiXhosa} [Two weeks later, the Treatment Action Campaign went back to Frontier Hospital for a response to their memorandum.]
Lihle Dlamini: You see many people dying everyday because there is a very long waiting list, do you perhaps have a number of people who are currently on treatment or perhaps will you highlight to us how many people are in desperate in need of treatment at present.
Fatima Hassan: We think at the end of June 2005, the number of patients were between 50 000 and 60 000 in a public sector; that means government hospitals. In terms of whether we are meeting targets very low, now why I say it's too low, it's because about a year and half ago government itself had said that there were about 500 000 to 700 000 people in this country who are already living with AIDS who are in need of treatment. So over time that figure must have increased but we only have 60 000 people in treatment, in government own plan, you talked about a plan were they have set the targets, they have said in the year of the start of the treatment programme right, so that was like last year we were suppose to have 53 000 patients on treatment and they did meet
their target and now it's the only second year of the programme and we are only sitting at 60 000.
Jack Lewis: The real movement of people on the ground and the protests of the Treatment Action Campaign have bought about a real improvement in the situation of many people getting access to treatment at the same hospital. Siyayinqoba's cameras were the only witness to these events making it impossible for any kind of cover up by the authorities. Siyayinqoba has continued playing the role of amplifying and echoing these movements on the ground, making it possible for many people to gain access to treatment .
Confusion caused by the Dr Rath Health Foundation.
Jason Wessenaar: One of the most alarming claims made by the Rath foundation is that his vitamins can reverse AIDS to living healthily with HIV and that they are a solution to the AIDS epidemic. However there is absolutely no proof that anything other than antiretrovirals can do this.
Jack Lewis: The history of AIDS in South Africa has been bedevilled by denialism. Not only a denialism that rejects the causative roll of HIV in AIDS, but also a denialism that promotes unproven and untested cures and treatments. Many people have died as a result of using these unproven and untested cures. One of the main sources of this disservice to the people of South Africa has been the Matthais Rath Health Foundation. Siyayinqoba Beat It! ran an extensive report on the work of the Rath Health Foundation.
The cost of unregulated experimentation
Report from Khayelitsha, Western Cape.
Nandipha Sgebenga: Mna ndingu-Nandipha Sgebenga ohlala e-Khayelitsha, ndiswelekelwe ngu-sister wam ongu-Ntombekhaya Kruthani, osweleke nge-27 ka-March ebulewe yi-HIV. Ngenye imini ndivela emsebenzini ndafika endixelela uba ufumene abantu abazamtrita apha endlini abafumene ekliniki e-Site B. ayingobantu abafumana e-Site B, ngugqirha othi ngu-Dr Rath. Dr Rath one-treatment ayityisa abantu aba-HIV positive, ibengu-1, 2 after two monthsbazibone bebhetele kwinyanga yesithathu. Bathi makangagoduki ngokuyana makahoyane ne-treamtent yakhe and then ayiyeke le yase-Site B, angazidibanisi zoyi-two ii-treatment. Ndathi ke mna kuba bendingakholi ukumjika into ayixelelwe yikliniki, ndathi ke mna azidityaniswa na ezipilisi ziyafana na, wathi ziyafana somnci nguyena gqirha ozondinceda lona ngoba uthi it's only two months. Kwinyanga yesithathu wazibona ububhetele mna ke khange ndibubone ububhetele. Uqalise nje la-treatment yakhona, endaweni yoba abebhetele waye eba-weak worse, wa-end up esweleka. {isiXhosa} [My name is Nandipha Sgebenga. I live in Khayelitsha. My sister Ntombekhaya Kruthani passed away on the 27 March due to HIV. I came home from work one day and my sister said she had found some people who would treat her from home. The people allegedly had a clinic in Site B. I found out that these people were not from Site B. This was a doctor called Dr Rath. This Dr Rath gives HIV positive people his treatment for only one to two months and they are meant to feel better on the third month. They told her to stop the Site B (ARV) treatment and not to mix it with theirs. I didn't want to stand in the way of what she had been told at the clinic in Site B, so I asked her if the two medications were the same and she said: "Yes" and that the one would help her best because she'd be better in two months. I did not see any improvement in her condition. She started on Rath's treatment and instead of getting better she got weaker and weaker and ended up dying.]
Angelina: Bafike apha kwinyanga ka-April, bebesithi ukhona ugqirha ose-22 onceda abantu aba-HIV. Sithathwe sasiwa e-Dunoon kugqirha okuthiwa ngu-Rath. Ngeloxesha andixelelayo uphethe i-brown paper enepilisi. Ndibuze kuye yintoni le uyiphetheyo, athi ziipilisi endizinikwe pha kula-surgery. Ndazivula ezipilisi ndazijonga, zibhalwe take 10 tablets 3 times a day, which is a day 30 tablets. Kuba umntwana wam efuna impilo uzityile ezipilisi, uthe engazigqibi waxhuzula. Ndazama ukumsa kwii-private doctors, akaphila. Still ngoku seyexhuzula wathi keep on wazisela ngoba kaloku kuthiwa ziyayinceda i-HIV, ufuna uphila. {isiXhosa} [Some people arrived here in April, saying that there was a doctor in NY 22 who helps people who are HIV positive. My daughter was taken to a place called Du Noon and met a doctor called Rath. She came back with a brown paper packet with pills in it. I asked her about it and she said the pills were given to her by Dr Rath. When I looked at the pills, it said to take ten tablets three times a day. That means 30 pills a day, because my child wanted to get better she took the pills. But before she could finish them she became very ill. I tried taking her to private doctors but she didn't get better. Even when she developed epilepsy, she continued with Dr Rath's medication, because she was told that it would suppress HIV.
Nandipha Sgebenga: Ndifila kabuhlungu kaloku because mhlawumbi ebezo-surviva u-Nora njengabanye abantu. Abantu aba-HIV baphilile and bakhona siyababona, baneminyaka eyi-13 oma-15 years umntu ephila ne-HIV yakhe. So ingathi kum uba ngaba khange azitye ezapilisi zika-Rath and nam bendizazi ezapilisi uzawuba worse a-end up esweleka. {isiXhosa} [I feel so sad because she could have survived longer like others. Some people with HIV are living life; we see them everyday, and they live for 13 or 15 years with HIV. So I wish she hadn't taken Rath's pills, I wish I had known that by taking those pills, she would get sick and die so quickly.]
Angelina: Uzisebenzisile ke ezipilis on and off, zange aphinde abe-right empilweni umntwana wam. Emane engu-on and off aquqe esbhedlele e-Jooste abuye, ndimse kwii-private doctors. Kuba ngoku egule emsebenzini nge-9 zika-October wayongena esbhedlele nge-12 on a Monday kuba yena ebebuyisiwe emsebenzini ngeCawe. Ndamsa kwagqirha kwathiwa makaye esbhedlele kulapho asweleke khona. {isiXhosa} [She kept taking Rath's pills but her health was on and off. She was getting sicker, going in and out of Jooste Hospital all the time, even going to private doctors, until the 9th of October 2005 when she got sick at work. On Monday the 12th of October I took her to Groote Schuur Hospital where she died. I feel very bad because she was the breadwinner for her two children. When I took her to hospital, the doctors told me that her liver was damaged, because she took the wrong pills. I blame Rath because he claimed that he could help my child, instead he took her to the grave. To me Rath is like apartheid and is out to get our people and kill them, because he only gives his medication to black people. He is full of politics and is out to kill our children. I wish people will do something about him. He should be banned in South Africa.
Voice over: Not only does the Rath publication, You Can, state that ARV drugs are no answer to AIDS, but it also claims that the Rath Foundation has the support of our Minister of Health and the government. So Beat It! went to Tshwane and asked Sibani Mngadi spokesperson for the Ministry of Health: Does the government support the Rath Foundation?
Sibane Mngadi: We agree on this one principal on the important role of nutrition one; on the role of multivitamins and micro-nutrient supplementation; yes we agree on those areas. On other areas I don't think we generally will agree because to say antiretrovirals have no role whatsoever in the response to HIV/AIDS will not be correct in terms of government policy as it stands now.
Voice Over: But we were not clear, so we asked the question again: "Does the government support the Rath Foundation?"
Sibane Mngadi: We have said that ARVs have a role to play. That is clear and that's why we made all the arrangements to have them provided. So now if a particular organisation does not, it does not agree with us on that, it does not necessarily mean that you have to denounce the whole organisation especially if you agree with the organisation on other things that are important to highlight at this kind of response.
Voice Over: Still we didn't quite understand, so we asked once more: "Does the government support the Rath Foundation?"
Sibane Mngadi: Hence I say it's not correct for them to claim that they have the support of the government. They can claim that maybe government truly agree with them on the issue of nutrition.
Sibane Mngadi: We have heard the complaints about particularly the Rath Foundation conducting as alleged clinical trials in the Western Cape. And the decision was then to ask the Medicines Control Council to conduct this investigation.
Voice Over: To date the MCC has not responded to Beat It's request to comment.
Dr Matthias Rath: My name is associated with the answers to a variety of diseases. Now that the word is out that there is a natural remedy for the control of AIDS immune deficiency, no one can stop this.
Jack Lewis: Up to 30% of prisoners in South African prisons may be living with HIV and at present antiretroviral treatment is not available in prison. With great difficulty we managed to get into Westville prison where we met Sifiso Zulu, a prisoner living with HIV, who spoke to us about conditions in prison for HIV positive prisoners. This insert was broadcast in February 2006 and in March 2006 these prisoners, including Sifiso, went on hunger strike for access to antiretroviral treatment.
Living with HIV inside prison
Report from Durban, KwaZulu Natal
Sifiso Zulu: Mina ngingu-Sifiso Zulu, Io oboshelwe la eWestville prison e-Medium B. Okwamanje ngidonsa isigwebo esingu-fifteen years. Ja, into eyenzekile ngahlatshwa yikugula, ngagula ngaze ngayiswa esibhedlela, ngithe mangisesibhedlela nga-approacha ngomunye usister, usister Dladla wangitshela ukuthi udokotela uncome ukuthi ngihlole igazi ukuthi ngizazi ukuthi ngimekuphi nge-status sami kwi-HIV/AIDS. Ngase ngivuma ukuthi ahlole igazi lami, kwaphela isikhashana bese abuya ama-results nemiphumela bese wabuya wangitshela ukuthi ngiphila negciwane. {isiZulu} [My name is Sifiso Zulu and I'm an inmate at the Westville Prison in Medium B. At the moment I'm serving a fifteen year sentence. I started getting really ill and then I was referred to the hospital here. I met sister Dladla who told me that the doctor suggests I test for HIV. I agreed to the blood test and after a short while I got my results that I'm living with HIV.
Gustav Wilson (Department of Correctional Services): Condoms are provided in private places such as in the toilets as well as at accessible areas. If offenders are for instance visiting our healthcare facilities it is accessible there as well.
Sifiso Zulu: We don't get condoms in prison; you find them in toilets, visiting areas or anywhere else. In order to get condoms you have to go to the hospital and ask a medical member for the condoms. You find them in a box in a corner, in a toilet or anywhere.
Nicholas Nxumalo (Nurse - Medium B Hospital, Westville Prison): Mostly guys who are admitted here they are suffering from AIDS, I should say AIDS. All the patients who are admitted here at the healthcare unit are mostly in need of ARVs, but unfortunately there are no ARVs at the moment.
Gustav Wilson (Department of Correctional Services): In South African prisons or correctional centres we do not provide antiretroviral therapies. We refer our offenders who are allegeable for ARV treatment to the nearest public health facilities which is accredited according to criteria set by the National Health Department.
Sifiso Zulu: Kwenziyo izinto ke kuma-opportunistic infections, uma akuvela, into eyenzekalayo la ekhaya urefera kudokotela. Udokotela uma efika besa aku-odela i-medication yilapho ngibona khona ukuthi kuba nama-delays, uthole ukuthi umuthi wakho uhamba isikhashana ethanda ukuthi gxagxa. Uma, singajabula kakhulu uma i-management ingaku bhekisisa lokhu, uma ngivela yisifo esithile ngifika ngisi-reporte la ekhaya ekliniki mese kusheshwe kuspeedwe i-process yokuthi i-medication yami ngiyithole. {isiZulu} [As an HIV positive inmate, I am very disappointed, because when I watch television, I hear organisations such as TAC saying that ARVs are effective in keeping people with HIV alive. So I would be very happy if the roll out of ARVs was also happening here at Westville Prison.]
Jack Lewis: After the hunger strike with the aid of the AIDS Law Project the prisoners began a court action against the Department of Correctional Services for access to antiretroviral treatment. The court action was successful, extraordinarily the departments decided to appeal the judgement, yet further delaying access to treatment for these prisoners, many of whom may well die whilst waiting for treatment. We would like to think that the publicity bought by the Siyayinqoba insert has aided the cause of prisoners for access to treatment.
Jack Lewis: Siyayinqoba has only been possible because of the work of a dedicated team, some of whom have been with the programme since 1999 and I would like to thank them all. But perhaps a special mention should be made of our cameraman Peter Baker, one of the people who have been with us since 1999, who is responsible for shooting all of the inserts that you have seen here today.
TAC Awards
Zackie Achmat: The last award goes for capturing the voice of TAC. That award goes to a cameraman who has recorded the struggles of poor people and working class youth and the anti-apartheid movement since the 1980s, Peter Baker. Comrades, our own film star has to come kiss him quickly.
Busisiwe Maqungo: My cameraman.
Zackie Achmat: He is a committed cameraman and soundman, and since 1999 he has captured voices like comrade Sibusiso Mkhize who died in KwaZulu-Natal. He captured Ronald Louw's voice, Christopher Moraka's voice, Edward Mabunda's voice and many other voices of TAC leaders, but most importantly he is the cameraman for Beat It! I want to say on behalf of TAC, thank you to Peter, and we have got a mug for him for coffee.
Narrator: Siyayinqoba Beat It! is bought to you by SABC education and Community Health Media Trust, proudly supported by the Open Society Foundation, The Cultural Workshop Conference Initiative and the MTN Foundation.
