Times Of Swaziland: ARREST PEOPLE WHO DELIBERATELY INFECT OTHERS WITH HIV – NERCHA

ARREST PEOPLE WHO DELIBERATELY INFECT OTHERS WITH HIV – NERCHA
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Melisa Msweli on 28/07/2022 08:09:00


NHLANGANO – Director of the National Emergency Response Council on HIV/AIDS
(NERCHA) Khanya Mabuza is calling for the criminalisation of deliberate HIV
transmission.
Mabuza was speaking during the National Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and HIV
Campaign in the Shiselweni Region yesterday. The event was held at Nhlangano
Park. He was narrating that the recent figures of HIV infections were not
good-looking and it was a concern because in as much as Shiselweni was the
region with the highest HIV infections, the region was first to have reached the
95-95-95 goal of fighting HIV and AIDS but now, things had gone back to square
one. He said the country being hit by COVID-19 affected the improvement of the
fight against HIV, adding that some had to be on lockdown, which made it hard
for them to access services.
“When we could finally step out, we found that the situation was worse and
when we went to the regions, we established that there was a lot not being done
right,” he said. Mabuza said most of the HIV positive people were the
perpetrators of gender-based violence in the name of love.
Mabuza stated that people who deliberately transmitted HIV to other people had
to be arrested. He said they were calling for the lawmakers to look into it.
Mabuza went on to state that they understood that these were matters that were
prior not discussed in courts but were calling for them to be considered as it
was criminal to deliberately infect another  person with HIV.
According to Mabuza, there were people, in particular men, who refused to use
protection with their partners even though they knew that they were HIV
positive. He narrated that most men refused to get tested but opted for their
wives to test and by extension, they (men) would know their status.
Mabuza said there were cases where when one of the partners was positive,
especially if it was the woman, the husband would accuse them of cheating and it
ended in violence as they would then assault the woman. He said some of the men
denied testing when they were the ones who engaged in sexual relations with
young girls, hence spreading the virus. He said the current statistics showed
that the highest HIV infections were among the girl-child, which spoke much on
gender based violence.
“Men should know that using money to persuade the young girls to have sexual
relations with them is gender-based violence on its own,” said Mabuza. Another
challenge that has seen the increase in HIV cases, according to Mabuza, was the
issue of men who did not want to circumcise. He said such was setting them back
of the milestone they had achieved in fighting new infections. Meanwhile,
Shiselweni Regional Administrator Representative Sibongile Mamba stated that the
seven cases of women murder in the country, four of which were from Shiselweni,
raised their eyebrows that there was need to end gender-based violence. She
further presented a schedule to be used by different stakeholders in fighting
gender-based violence in the region. “We, as a region are determined to fight
gender-based violence,” she said.
The Church Forum on the other hand, through Pastor Reginald Sibiya, said they
were calling for government to declare GBV a national disaster as there were
lives lost every day. He further encouraged them to talk about GBV in church and
educate members about it. Meanwhile, UNFPA promised to continue assisting the
country in fighting GBV.