AIDS Consortium, a nonprofit human rights organisation founded by HIV-positive Judge Edwin Cameron in 1992 to create an atmosphere of openness and nondiscrimination, distributed thousands of copies of a pocket-sized booklet cum multiple-page desk calendar to members of the public as part of its World Aids Day drive on December 1.
The superbly designed booklet profiles 28 HIV-positive people around the country who have under trying circumstances overcome the challenges of stigma, gossip, non-disclosure, HIV-Aids counsellors' lack of confidentiality, ignorance, alcohol abuse, among other things, and are now living and dealing positively with the disease.
These are brave individuals indeed and one can see why they are called the consortium's community champions.
There is one disturbing and worrying thing, though.
Not one of the 28 HIV-positive people profiled in the booklet is white, coloured or Indian. All of them are black.
Anyone coming to Mzansi for the first time would, after seeing this booklet, be excused for thinking that HIV-Aids is a black disease.
It pays to be incompetent
You just have to give it to Mzansi, where incompetence and under-performance can unlock highly rewarding careers for you.
Take the case of Rainer Zobel, the failed coach of Premier Soccer League outfit Moroka Swallows, for example.
Instead of being given his marching orders and a one-way plane ticket back to his home country, Germany, after managing to secure only two points out of a possible 27, the foul-mouthed football manager was rewarded with another cushy job at the club.
While everybody was expecting to see him pounding the streets of Frankfurt and Berlin in search of a job after a lackadaisical performance, Zobel has landed a less stressful but decently paying job as the club's technical adviser.
But who can blame Leon Prins, the club's chief executive officer, for retaining out-of-sorts Zobel? The Moroka Swallows' boss has obviously learnt from the best.
If the Machine Gun Man, who occupies the highest office in the land, can do it, what stops anyone from doing the same?
Two of the seven ministers the Machine Gun Man axed in an unprecedented cabinet shake-up a few weeks ago are today sitting pretty in cosy jobs instead of being made to pay for short-changing the voters.
Former sport and recreation minister Machines Stofile was so out of his depth in his job that the Machine Gun Man had no option but to nudge him out of the limelight when the country hosted the 2010 Fifa World Cup. Despite his limitations, Stofile has gone on to become the country's ambassador to Germany.
Under General Siphiwe Nyanda's watch, the communications portfolio was engulfed in controversy from day one, which he failed dismally to place under control.
His penchant for a lavish lifestyle, coupled with his poor handling of the challenges faced by the SABC and signal distributor Sentech, and staffing problems in his own department, cost him his job.
But just when taxpayers thought they had seen the back of him, Nyanda resurfaced in Parliament as the Machine Gun Man's counsellor.
This basically means the retired army general is the president's eyes and ears in Parliament. Some eyes and ears!
- This is a column written by Bathathe Guluva
Email Guluva on: thatha.guluva@gmail.com.
Is Aids a black disease?
AIDS Consortium, a nonprofit human rights organisation founded by HIV-positive Judge Edwin Cameron in 1992 to create an atmosphere of openness and nondiscrimination, distributed thousands of copies of a pocket-sized booklet cum multiple-page desk calendar to members of the public as part of its World Aids Day drive on December 1.
The superbly designed booklet profiles 28 HIV-positive people around the country who have under trying circumstances overcome the challenges of stigma, gossip, non-disclosure, HIV-Aids counsellors' lack of confidentiality, ignorance, alcohol abuse, among other things, and are now living and dealing positively with the disease.
These are brave individuals indeed and one can see why they are called the consortium's community champions.
There is one disturbing and worrying thing, though.
Not one of the 28 HIV-positive people profiled in the booklet is white, coloured or Indian. All of them are black.
Anyone coming to Mzansi for the first time would, after seeing this booklet, be excused for thinking that HIV-Aids is a black disease.
It pays to be incompetent
You just have to give it to Mzansi, where incompetence and under-performance can unlock highly rewarding careers for you.
Take the case of Rainer Zobel, the failed coach of Premier Soccer League outfit Moroka Swallows, for example.
Instead of being given his marching orders and a one-way plane ticket back to his home country, Germany, after managing to secure only two points out of a possible 27, the foul-mouthed football manager was rewarded with another cushy job at the club.
While everybody was expecting to see him pounding the streets of Frankfurt and Berlin in search of a job after a lackadaisical performance, Zobel has landed a less stressful but decently paying job as the club's technical adviser.
But who can blame Leon Prins, the club's chief executive officer, for retaining out-of-sorts Zobel? The Moroka Swallows' boss has obviously learnt from the best.
If the Machine Gun Man, who occupies the highest office in the land, can do it, what stops anyone from doing the same?
Two of the seven ministers the Machine Gun Man axed in an unprecedented cabinet shake-up a few weeks ago are today sitting pretty in cosy jobs instead of being made to pay for short-changing the voters.
Former sport and recreation minister Machines Stofile was so out of his depth in his job that the Machine Gun Man had no option but to nudge him out of the limelight when the country hosted the 2010 Fifa World Cup. Despite his limitations, Stofile has gone on to become the country's ambassador to Germany.
Under General Siphiwe Nyanda's watch, the communications portfolio was engulfed in controversy from day one, which he failed dismally to place under control.
His penchant for a lavish lifestyle, coupled with his poor handling of the challenges faced by the SABC and signal distributor Sentech, and staffing problems in his own department, cost him his job.
But just when taxpayers thought they had seen the back of him, Nyanda resurfaced in Parliament as the Machine Gun Man's counsellor.
This basically means the retired army general is the president's eyes and ears in Parliament. Some eyes and ears!
Email Guluva on: thatha.guluva@gmail.com.
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