The South African Health Minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, has reported sexual health news that, in his words, has ‘destroyed my soul’. According to Mr Motsoaledi, “sugar daddies” are exploiting the countries schoolgirls, meaning that at least 28% are HIV positive, compared with just 4% of South African boys.
Official statistics show that roughly 10% of South Africans are now living with HIV, a disease that seriously threatens your wellbeing. As a result, South Africa has launched an ambitious programme to tackle HIV and Aids, and Mr Motsoaledi has been widely praised for his efforts to curb the disease. Yet, the health minister was also forced to admit, as reported in The Sowetan newspaper, that 94,000 schoolgirls also fell pregnant in 2011, and 77,000 had abortions at state facilities. He claimed this was, again, due to the exploitation of sugar daddies.
Since President Jacob Zuma appointed him South African health minister in 2009, Mr Motsoaledi has run the largest anti-retroviral (ARV) programme in the world. According to official statistics, after Mr Motsoaledi took office, the number of HIV-positive people receiving life-saving ARV drugs more than doubled from 678,500 to 1.5 million. With the previous government, led by former President Thabo Mbeki, the link between HIV and Aids was questioned, and it was argued that the government could not afford to roll out this treatment to all the South Africans who needed it.
In spite of Mr Motsoaledi’s ARV success, however, comes the “soul-destroying” news that older men are still taking advantage of young girls, causing a disproportionate rise in cases of HIV. Speaking at a public meeting in the town of Carolina in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province, Mr Motsoaledi said the large number of young girls who were HIV-positive ‘destroyed my soul’ because ‘it is clear that it is not young boys who are sleeping with these girls. It is old men.’
The Sowetan also quoted him as saying, ‘We must take a stand against sugar daddies because they are destroying our children.’ He added that the disease even affected the wellness of some pregnant girls, who were aged between 10 and 14, as they also tested positive for HIV. ‘77 000 girls had abortions at public facilities,’ he said. ‘We can no longer live like that. We want to put an end to it.’
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