South Africa's VP Acquitted Of Rape Charges:

May 08-2006:

South Africa's Vice President Acquitted Of Rape Charges:


Today the Vice President of South Africa was acquitted from the charges of raping a woman infected with HIV.

He still has to face charges in court some time soon on corruption.

This incident (though high profile in nature), is indicative of thousands of African men, who feel that raping an infected woman or a virgin, will cleanse them from HIV. This man knew of her HIV infection, yet did not bother to use a condom during that so called consensual intercourse.

He never considerd her health, nor did he even cared about infecting her with some other STD. In fact he probably felt that she was of no value to him, to even consider such things. Or possibly just acting out the misconstrued mentality mentioned earlier.

The intentional HIV community of advocates are very concerned with attitudes of this sort, and wonders if a political leader of his stature could be so careless. Then what about the common man on the street, with no political, economic, or social standing to consider.

The South African government refused to acknowledge that HIV existed in that country for several years, until the virus had impacted several thousands. Today, it is getting some help with medications, but several thousands cannot afford these medications. And the vast majority of those who are known to be infected live in the proverbial Shanty Townships.

To date, these shanty towns are still an eye sore in South Africa. And the population is getting wary with the rate of development that the government is making, in helping them to get out of that depraved situation.

Sincerely,
Derryck S. Griffith.
Educator-Advocate & Blogger.