Silence about HIV/AIDS as serious as the disease itself - Mandela

Nelson Mandela has called for a new social revolution to defeat the "catastrophic" scourge of HIV/ AIDS in South Africa and "save our nation from destruction".

In an emotionally charged address to South African youth - and the world - Mandela urged the breaking of silence around the HIV/AIDS issue.

He was speaking at a special youth forum in Johannesburg yesterday with computer magnate Bill Gates, as part of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation tour of sub-Saharan Africa.

"This silence," Mandela said, "is as serious a killer as the virus itself. We need a fundamental mindset in the way we speak and behave about sex and sexuality."

Although it was an informal gathering, his message was direct and powerful.

"AIDS is clearly a disaster," he told his young audience. "It is effectively wiping out the development gains of the past decades and sabotaging the future. Decades have been chopped off life expectancy, and young child mortality is expected to more than double."

However, within this bleak scenario was the opportunity to reach deeply into "that pool of human caring and human compassion that characterised us as a people in the struggle against apartheid".

Calling for the breaking of silence, he said that much of the progress made in South Africa in combating HIV/AIDS was due to the growing tide of speaking about HIV/AIDS publicly and clearly.

Adding to the call for change, global philanthropist Bill Gates said that while South Africa was poised for tremendous growth and prosperity, HIV/AIDS was crippling the very group that would determine the country's future.

"It's the decisions the youth make that can radically reverse the epidemic," he said. The Gates couple, who shared the podium with Mandela and his wife Graça Machel at the Witwatersrand University clinic and advice centre in Hillbrow, listened to poignant testimonies from young South Africans about their experiences with the disease. The children were asked to speak freely and openly and not be shy to ask the four guests for homespun advice.

One question, directed at "Mamma" Machel, revolved around parents and how to change entrenched attitudes about discrimination and stigma. Machel said: "Be bold, work with youth groups. You need to talk clean and straight."

Melinda Gates, moved by many of the stories, said this willingness to talk openly was an inspiring experience, one she called "a stepping stone to dialogue" that could change the face of the disease.

Among the topics raised by the young members of the audience was that money spent on changing street names should instead be used to treat HIV/AIDS patients; that HIV/AIDS should be a subject learnt at school, with pupils seeing the effects of the disease first-hand; and that more Internet sites should be devoted to subjects like condom use. To the last suggestion, Bill Gates said it was an issue he would investigate.