SWAZILAND: Anti-AIDS text messaging campaign raises hackles

In one of the biggest demonstrations seen in Swaziland in years, HIV-positive people marched on the offices of the prime minister and the national AIDS council this week to protest an "insulting" new media campaign.

The project by the National Emergency Response Council on HIV/AIDS (NERCHA) seems to suggest that HIV is caused by sexual infidelity. It was launched last month without consulting people living with the virus.

"The campaign further stigmatises the HIV infected. It is an insult, we are angry. It is time we are involved in matters pertaining to us," said protest leader Vusi Matsebula, chairperson of the Swaziland National Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (SWANNEPHA). Around 1,000 people participated in the demonstration.

The media campaign, called "Makhwapheni", SiSwati slang for illicit lovers, has sent out tens of thousands of cellphone text messages mimicking secret lovers arranging a sexual rendezvous.

The marketing company behind the initiative was quoted in the local press as saying its critics failed to understand the campaign's creative rationale, and said cellphones were the primary means of communication for couples having affairs.

But to Swaziland's growing number of people living with HIV and AIDS - over 40 percent of the sexually active adult population - the campaign smacked of cheap sensationalism.

"HIV is not just spread by cheating husbands and secret lovers - this insults us all," said Senzo Nkhosi, a protestor who said he was HIV-positive.

A survey by the Times of Swaziland found the general public split on the merits of the campaign. Supporters, none of whom said they were HIV-positive, contended the approach was meant to startle and provoke discussion.

NERCHA did not return IRIN's phone calls on Friday, but in previous press statements the organisation, which falls under the authority of the Prime Minister's office, has argued that Makhwapheni was a dramatic attempt to change people's behaviour.

However, SWANNEPHA has accused NERCHA of arrogance, and its staff of making a living off the AIDS crisis, which NERCHA has denied. The protestors also claimed NERCHA was concentrating its media efforts on uninfected Swazis while ignoring people in the advanced stages of opportunistic diseases brought on by AIDS.

The Makhwapheni campaign has become the catalyst for AIDS groups to raise other objections. At the march they delivered petitions to NERCHA and the prime minister demanding universal access to care and treatment for people living with the virus, and legislation protecting the rights of those who are HIV positive.

SWANNEPHA, an umbrella body of community-based AIDS support groups that receives funding from NERCHA, gave the AIDS council until the end of the month to address its concerns. Protestors vowed to begin a sleep-in vigil at NERCHA headquarters if they were not satisfied.

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[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]