Pressure is mounting for the university lecturer who said that people who are HIV positive should be branded on their bodies so that others could tell who they were to withdraw his remarks.
But Dr Eliot Tofa, writing in the Swazi Observer yesterday (26 May 2008), says, ‘I did nothing wrong’.
The controversy started last Wednesday (21 May 2008) when the Observer published Tofa’s remarks on its front page.
Since then reaction has been almost totally against him. The Observer ran a poll asking ‘is Dr Eliot Tofa right in suggesting that HIV positive people should be branded to control the spread of AIDS?’ A total of 99 percent of the 2829 people who responded to the poll said he was wrong.
The Swaziland Aids Support Organisation (SASO) condemned Tofa’s remarks as ‘senseless’. The Times of Swaziland reported yesterday (26 May 2008) SASO saying that ‘his statement was tantamount to blatant stigmatisation and called upon him to withdraw it forthwith’.
SASO representative Vusi Matsebula is quoted saying,
‘If the branding of people living with HIV is done, it should start with Dr Tofa himself. He should know that the people living with HIV are in a situation they did not wish to be in and as such they should not be stigmatised.’
Bongane Zwane, writing in her column in the Weekend Observer (24 May 2008), said that ‘the whole country is abuzz with comments’ after Tofa’s first article. Some were angry because he seemed to be suggesting that people who were HIV positive had brought it upon themselves.
All this prompted Zwane to comment,
‘Dr Eliot Tofa should be stopped. His utterances have taken us back to the dark ages and quite frankly he must just shut up. While we live in a society that encourages freedom of expression, we also need to recognise that all freedoms come with responsibilities.’
Dr Tofa, himself writing in the Observer yesterday makes some attempt to further explain his reasons for making the original statement. As I wrote on Friday (23 May 2008) Dr Tofa’s commands of reasoning and of the English language are poor and it is difficult to follow his arguments. In his latest article he seems to be saying that he is in favour of the ABC principle of HIV avoidance (abstinence, be faithful, use a condom), but I honestly can’t be sure.
What the Observer has still not told its readers is why it felt Tofa’s views on HIV were worth reporting. Tofa is a lecturer in the Theology and Religious Studies Department of the University of Swaziland (UNISWA) and has no obvious expertise in the subject of HIV. Nor, has the Observer come out with a clear statement as to what the newspaper’s own position is regarding the branding of HIV people.
Tofa’s comments have become a national talking point – the Observer owes it to its readers to answer these questions.
See also
‘SWAZI OBSERVER’ HIV HATRED UPDATE
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