HIV/AIDS and Gender-Based Violence in the South African Context

Below is a very brief paper that I wrote for PACSA as part of introductory section to a much larger project. Many of the statistics are startling, but eye-opening to the realities of the South African context.

The high prevalence rates of both gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS have created interrelated crises in South Africa. At 5.5 million people, South Africa had the highest number of HIV infections of any country in the world in 2007 according to Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). The Department of Health in South Africa stated that 18.3% of adults (15-49 years) were living with HIV in 2006, although the prevalence rate varied widely from province to province. In Kwa-Zulu Natal, 39% of pregnant women tested positive at antenatal clinics. In South Africa women are disproportionately infected with HIV. Among 15-24 year-olds, women represent 90% of new infections. The HIV incidence among women 20-29 years-old was approximately 5.6% in 2005, nearly six times higher than the incidence rate among men of the same age range. As AIDS-related illnesses are the leading cause of death in South Africa, it cannot be denied that this country faces a health crisis of massive proportions.

The spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic is directly related to the elevated occurrence of gender-based violence in South Africa. According to People Opposed to Women Abuse (POWA), a woman is raped in South Africa every 26 seconds. Every fourth woman is in an abusive relationship, and every six days a woman is killed by her intimate male partner. One in four girls (under the age of 16) has been sexually abused. If a rapist is HIV positive, his victim is also likely to become infected. When a woman is in an abusive relationship, she is far less likely to be able to negotiate using condoms with her partner, a proven method of preventing HIV infection. Women are also more likely to be infected than men for biological reasons. The friction from forced sex creates lesions through which the virus can be transmitted in semen and blood over a wide surface area. A common misconception is that women are more likely to be infected through risky sexual behaviors, such as promiscuity, but a large South African study demonstrated that 61% of all HIV positive women had been faithful to one partner their entire lives. The high level of gender-based violence in South Africa is not only a crisis in its own right, but it is also contributing to the spread HIV. The HIV/AIDS pandemic and the pervasiveness of gender-based violence must be addressed as two interrelated crises facing South Africa today.

Stay in touch for more about my experiences organizing for the 16 Days Campaign Against Abuse of Women and Children and World AIDS Day (1 December).