Your daily Selection of IRIN Africa PlusNews reports, 9/26/2005

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CONTENT:

1 - SWAZILAND: Poverty-stricken AIDS widows pin hopes on new constitution

2 - TANZANIA: 44,000 to receive ARVs by end of 2005

1 - SWAZILAND: Poverty-stricken AIDS widows pin hopes on new constitution

MBABANE, 26 September (PLUSNEWS) - A new association of widows in Swaziland

hopes to raise greater awareness of the plight of women who have lost their

husbands to AIDS.

" We grow in numbers daily - the epidemic is creating a nation of widows, " said

Lindiwe Vilakati, a member of Litsemba Lebafelokati (SiSwati for " Hope of the

Widows " ) Association.

" In a sense, we are the worst sufferers of AIDS, " said the chairwoman,

Nonhlanhla Nene. " The main activity of our association thus far has been the

burial of our members. "

Sandwiched between its giant neighbours, South Africa and Mozambique, the small

kingdom of Swaziland has the world's worst HIV/AIDS rate, with close to 40

percent of adults infected. Widows who do not succumb to AIDS contracted from

their husbands often live out their lives in dire poverty.

" Sixty percent of the association's members have no means of earning a living, "

said Nene. " They are helpless. "

That despair is palpable when talking to Gogo ( " Granny " ) Motsa, a 55-year-old

mother of four, whose family could barely make ends meet when her unemployed

husband was still alive.

" He could hunt wild game and fish, and before he became too ill he could do odd

jobs. He cultivated our little field of maize. We did not starve - now, we are

weak from hunger, " Motsa said, standing at the edge of a field that produced

some cotton this year.

The unrealised profits from the cotton harvest illustrate the vulnerability

faced by widows.

" I could not plough this field myself. That is not the work of a Swazi woman.

The children were too small, so this man said he would plant cotton on our

field, sell it, and I would get half the money. He did grow cotton, and took it

away. He left me with R200 (US $30), and said he would bring the rest. I have

never seen him again, " Motsa related.

The government recognised the need to protect the meagre resources of

Swaziland's burgeoning population of widows when the Constitutional Draft

Committee finalised the nation's constitution last month. The document calls on

parliament to enact legislation regulating the property rights of spouses,

including common-law wives, as soon as practicable after the constitution goes

into effect early in 2006.

" A surviving spouse is entitled to a reasonable provision out of the estate of

the other spouse, whether the other spouse died having made a valid will or not,

and whether the spouses were married by civil or customary rites, " Clause 35 of

the constitution reads.

An attorney with the NGO, Women in Law in Southern Africa, considered the clause

an acknowledgement that the Swazi custom of giving all a deceased man's property

to his father's family has been abused.

" Greedy relatives take everything and leave widows in poverty - at the hour of

their greatest need they are burdened with further worry; the children have no

means of support. It is barbaric. The constitution seeks compassion for widows

by legislating an end to greedy relatives, " she said.

Community volunteers in rural areas are canvassing small farms like Gogo Motsa's

for an emergency census of widows and vulnerable children in need of food,

medical attention and social services. The new widows' association plans to do

the same, and to urge government officials to recognise the needs of its

members.

" We must press our MPs to come up with the laws to protect widows' property

rights, like the constitution says, " said Vilakati. " I can foresee these laws

going nowhere if we do not make our voices heard. "

[ENDS]

2 - TANZANIA: 44,000 to receive ARVs by end of 2005

DAR ES SALAAM, 26 September (PLUSNEWS) - The government of Tanzania plans to

have at least 44,000 people infected with HIV/AIDS on antiretroviral treatment

(ARVs) by the end of 2005, President Mkapa said on Sunday.

This figure, he said, represented some 10 percent of the actual number of those

in need of ARVs.

Speaking at the general meeting of Churches United Against HIV and AIDS in

Southern and Eastern Africa in Dar es Salaam, Mkapa however warned that easy

access to treatment and drugs should not encourage a jaded mentality towards sex

and AIDS.

He urged HIV-positive clerics and church workers to openly declare their health

status to reduce stigmatisation of those infected.

" One cause of the prevalence and increase of HIV infection is the social stigma,

which inhibits those who might want to come out and who, by the way of cruel

justice, might be driven to reckless promiscuity, " he said.

He said that for anti-HIV/AIDS campaign to succeed countrywide, the government,

civil society, churches and other groups needed to make concerted efforts in

order to check the spread of the disease, which currently affects an estimated 7

percent, or two million of Tanzania's adult population. The country has a

population of 36.7 million.

" Those suffering from AIDS do not lose their humanity and the right to be loved

simply because of their being infected, " Mkapa said. " Even when they may be

infected through 'sin', they deserve to be loved and to be cared for by their

families, communities and society. "

He added: " Churches can spread this message convincingly because of their

theological understanding. My plea to you is: don't allow compassion fatigue to

set in. "

He praised churches for setting up institutions that provide care for the

infected.

" I'm deeply gratified that churches are in the very forefront in the provision

of institutional care, " he added. " Most orphanages are built and run by them. "

[ENDS]

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