‘SWAZI OBSERVER’ HIV HATRED

The Swazi Observer made a terrible mistake when it published on its front page a call for all HIV positive people to be branded on their bodies so people could tell they had the virus.

The Observer yesterday (Wednesday 21 May 2008) quoted a university lecturer Dr Eliot Tofa saying that preventative interventions to stop the spread of HIV in Swaziland had so far failed. He said that people who were HIV positive should be branded on the back or thigh so that other people would know not to have sex with them.

Tofa went so far as to quote Genesis in the Bible in support of his absurd idea. Have you noticed how many bigots in Swaziland resort to Genesis or other Old Testament books to give spurious credence to their nonsense?

There was absolutely no reason for the Observer to publish this report. Tofa was not speaking at any public arena, nor had he published an academic paper or book on the topic. For all we know he may have made his comments in a bar after ten bottles of beer.

Tofa is a lecturer in the Theology and Religious Studies Department at the University of Swaziland (UNISWA) so he doesn’t even appear to have any special expertise on the subject of HIV and AIDS.

The Observer therefore had no justification for publishing the comments that amount to hate speech.

The Swaziland National Association of Journalists (SNAJ) has a code of conduct that expressly cautions journalists against spreading hate speech. Article 13 of the code says that ‘journalists shall avoid by all means the publication of speech that might promote hatred, spite and conflict’. Tofa’s remarks clearly hold up HIV positive people to hatred. How else can you interpret the call for them to be branded so everyone else can easily spot them?

There is no justification for publishing this report, unless the Observer itself supports the view and wanted an excuse to preach to the public. I’d like to think this isn’t the case, but we must remember that it was the Observer that gave a full page to the hate group Prolife Movement in Anglophone Africa in February 2008 to peddle its nonsense about HIV AIDS, homosexuals, feminism and abortion.

Is this connection coincidental or does the Observer have a hidden agenda?

The Observer made a small attempt at balance yesterday by reporting the response of the Swaziland Network of People Living With HIV and AIDS (SWANNEPHA) to Tofa.

SWANNEPHA Director, Thembi Nkambule called his views ‘Stone Age’ and ‘illiterate’.

But by the time SWANNEPHA was interviewed, the damage was already done.

See also
‘OBSERVER’ BACKS SWAZI HATE GROUP