No Place For Denial

When former South African President Nelson Mandela announced that his only surviving son had died of aids, news of the family tragedy resonated around the world. More than 5 million South Africans are HIV positive; the U.N. estimates that more than 600 of them die of the virus every day. But the government of Mandela’s successor, Thabo Mbeki, has hampered efforts to fight the disease by questioning the link between HIV and AIDS and the efficacy of AIDS drugs.

Mandela’s public acknowledgment last week that his son Makgatho, 54, an apprentice lawyer, had succumbed to the disease was “a political statement designed to . . . force the President out of his denial,” says Debbie Mathew, executive director of the aids Foundation of South Africa. Said Mandela: I have been saying. . . . that we should speak openly about HIV/AIDS . . . It is the only way in which it will become an ordinary disease.” Mbeki’s office expressed its condolences for the Mandelas’ loss, but a spokesman said the President would not publicly comment on the cause of death.