Communities are beginning to accept people living with HIV and AIDS as the part of them by not discriminating them as stigmas slowly disappear.

This was evident when Alfred Nzo District Municipality, Attic, held it World Aids Day celebration at Mzongwana village in Matatiele. People from all walks of life came out and disclosed their status in front of close to 2000 villagers.

A woman who disclosed that she has been living with the disease for nearly 7 years and was still going strong. “The community members are now treating me with respect,” said the HIV positive 47-year-old, from Mzongwana area. “The stigma and discrimination we used to suffer after we disclose our HIV status has totally gone. People know that we are human too and we deserve some respect.”
She however, conceded that it was not easy to be accepted by the community with this disease before.

She believed that was because many people were scared to talk about HIV and AIDS and decided to ignore it as if it is not there. She said that she had been through a lot after she discovered that she was HIV positive in 2001.
”My family treated him badly. They chased me away from the house they all shared. They called me names and accused me of bringing shame to family. They didn‚t want to see him again.

She was one of the many people infected with the disease who were taking part at the World Aids Day 2007 events in Mzongwana Village some kilometres away from the main town of Matatiele. Another patient who asked not to be named said some people are still discriminating them because they don‚t understand this epidemic.

“But the support we get from the general public is amazing. We cannot ask for more. People need to understand that being HIV positive does not mean we are animals who do not deserve to live within the community,” he said.

The Alfred Nzo District Municipality Executive Mayor GG Mpumza said people living with HIV and AIDS need to be praised for their courage to disclose their status to the communities, risking facing discrimination and a stigma just so that they can educate other people about this epidemic.

“These people living with HIV and Aids are the reflection of the impact of the epidemic in our family structures, quality of life of our elderly, social development of our children and the general quality of the life of our society,” said Mr Mpumza.
Matatiele Mayor Cllr Tai Sello said he believe that although the stigma and discrimination is gone against people living with HIV-Aids, there is still a lot that needs to be done to educate people about this disease, especially starting within families.

“It better to start educating families because they are the ones who should be giving HIV positive people support before going out to the community,” said Mr Sello.

Eastern Cape Aids Council CEO Reverend Canon Lulama Ntshingwa called on traditional leaders to assist families affected by the pandemic. Ntshingwa also called on traditional leaders to assist doctors by coming up with traditional medicine.

“We have been waiting for a cure for many years. We hope that traditional healer can assist with a cure. A number of traditional leaders, church domination and political parties attend the event.