NEWS

Many of the honorable representatives here today were children of the revolution.

We looked at the country our parents had made possible - the nation of apartheid - and rejected it. Many were tortured or died to make the freedoms enshrined under our new constitution possible.

They must today, look from their graves and weep.

Because the greatest freedom they gave us was the right to life, and not just life but a good life, South Africa today, for our children is a country of death. The Medical Research Council report on AIDS will tell us that our children - those aged from 15 to 35 are mostly dying of AIDS. And in a report to be released on October 7, they will tell us that those children who do not die of AIDS will be murdered, a person is 12 times more likely to be murdered in SA than any other country of the world except Colombia. Young black men aged from their 16 to 29 are more likely to be shot dead than to die of any other cause except for AIDS.

So you tell me why any young person should accept safe sex messages if they believe they have no hope, no jobs, no opportunities and the risks of them being shot dead are unbelievably high. But we hear few words of comfort, and see, too little action from parliament. How can we as mothers allow the death of our children and be quiet? That is not the African way. Every child is my child.

7 000 babies die of AIDS each month because we don't extend treatment to prevent Mother to Child Transmission to all - what would SA and the world say if we shot dead 7 000 people each month? Or killed 7 000 puppies? But we are silent because our babies die quietly in their mother's arms or battling to breathe in hospitals.

And so we have a situation in Africa where 6 times more girl children are infected than boys or men. Some women here laughed on Wednesday when it was mentioned that men won't accept the word "NO"- shame on you for laughing, because that refusal by men is seeing our women and girls dying. Rape is endemic. Child rape doubled last year, the Minister of Safety and Security told parliament two weeks ago.

The myth that you can rape a virgin is out of control. The Sowetan carried a front page article less than a month ago about an 8-year-old boy in Kwa Zulua Natal who had been repeatedly raped by 2 men. That boy now has HIV. In SA male rape is not a crime. It is also not a crime to deliberately infect someone with HIV. Why are you not doing your jobs? Why are these things not crimes? In my experience a child raped and who contracts HIV dies in 8 to 18 months, they die quickly because Post Traumatic Stress during rape destroys the immune system, and unless you are rich in SA, you are not going to be able to afford the ARVs that stop HIV. Mothers, why are you allowing a situation where we do nothing to stop virgin rape? Why are you silent? Why are drugs not given to those raped to stop HIV? It would cost the government R200 to supply those drugs - but if we contract HIV, it will cost government a minimum of R150 000 to treat that child before he or she dies a terrible death. Are our children worth less than R200? I bet most people here today are wearing clothes that cost much more than R200.

We need to go back to traditions of respect.

We need to break the silence. There are women here today who have been raped and are silent, and do nothing to help their sisters who are being raped.

In the 30 minutes we have assigned for our presentation 60 men, women or children will have been raped.

Last year according to DoH and UNAIDS 250 000 SAs died of AIDS - that averages to 685 SAs dying each day of AIDS. Most of those who died were, and will continue to be women and children. Mothers, parliamentarians, we look to you as our government, our representatives to help us. We have to stop rape. We have to stop HIV. We have put our trust in you, please do not betray us.

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