SWAZI ‘AIDS CAMP’ PROPOSAL

The University of Swaziland lecturer who proposes branding people who are HIV positive says he was misquoted by the Swazi Observer newspaper.

The remarks of Dr Eliot Tofa caused a storm of outrage when they were published on the front page of the newspaper. Even, his own university, the University of Swaziland (UNISWA) placed paid advertisements in Swazi newspapers to ‘disassociate’ themselves from Tofa.

Now Tofa has been in touch we me by telephone and email to say he was misrepresented by the Observer – and by extension, Swazi Media Commentary.

Tofa told me he does believe in branding the bodies of people who are HIV positive. It is just that they should be branded on a private part of their body and not somewhere that would be seen by the general public.

Tofa asked me to remove references to him from the website. I declined to do this but I said I would publish an email from him if he sent one.

Below is what he wrote.

'The essence of my article was that it is important that people disclose their HIV status to their partners before sex. This is the gist of my article. My argument is that the ABC in Africa and not Swaziland has achieved minimal benefits. Depite the knowledge about HIV and AIDS, people have not changed their sexual habits. The editor edited my work.

'I am asking you to take note of this in whatever you write.'

Doing nasty things to people with HIV and AIDS is not a new suggestion in Swaziland. Stephen Donaghy of the Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations pointed out to me a news report that said people with HIV and AIDS should be put in isolation camps.

Donaghy says ‘it is old news but still shocking.’ Which it is.

The report from the BBC in 2000 begins,

‘An adviser to the Swazi monarch has shocked health workers at a conference in Swaziland after he proposed an isolation camp for HIV and Aids sufferers.

‘Tfohlongwane Dlamini, the influential chairman of the National Council Standing Committee, told delegates that the only way to prevent the spread of the disease was through isolating the victims.

‘“These people should be kept in their own special place if we want to curb the spread of this disease,” he said.

‘Mr Dlamini described the sufferers as “bad potatoes” and said they must be removed from general society or else “all will go rotten”’.

You can read the full report here.