ARREST PEOPLE WHO DELIBERATELY INFECT OTHERS WITH HIV – NERCHA

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.

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