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Every weekend there are more and more funerals, but the mourners do not discuss why the deceased passed away."People who come to me for counselling often believe that they have been bewitched," says Xaba, "or they will avoid telling me their status. Xaba calls it a "wake up call for South Africa." Asked what she thinks of Mbeki's response to the Aids crisis, she pauses for a long time. "I love my president," she says, "but when it comes to Aids, he drives me insane."Xaba went for an HIV test herself a few years ago "It was a very traumatic time," she says "I sat in the waiting room thinking, 'Oh my God. What if I am positive?' but, luckily, it came back negative." She has two daughters, Sinenjabulo (meaning "happiness"), 17, and Meme, 6, who she lives with in Umlazi, along with her mother and five sisters.
She says she is totally open with her children about the risks of catching HIV. More than 60 per cent of South Africa's new infections occur in under-25s.Once infected, the outlook is bleak. I have to pick it up during the conversation." In this context, Nelson Mandela's admission in January that his last surviving son, Makgatho, had died of Aids, was nothing short of revolutionary. In Britain, where anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) are available to all, Aids deaths have plummeted in the last five years.
Yet the government has been slow to act, with Thabo Mbeki, the country's president, who has continued to question the link between HIV and Aids.This denial permeates the whole of South African society "My 25-year-old nephew is HIV positive," says Xaba. There are many orphans and not enough money to send them all to school." Families of ten people, with no wage earners, are surviving on grants of 700 rand (£62) per month.Premature deaths in South Africa have risen 57 per cent in the last five years, largely due to Aids, according to South African government figures. "When I found out I said to him, 'Do you know what this means?' But he didn't want to know He said he didn't want any treatment. After a few pleasantries, she politely reminds me of the purpose of her trip: to tell our political elite to do more to tackle the African Aids epidemic "People are dying," she says in her soft, insistent voice "I attend funerals every weekend. When will it come to an end?"This week, Xaba has the kind of access usually reserved for world leaders and A-list celebrities. Meetings with Gordon Brown, Bob Geldof and Hilary Benn, the International Development Secretary, are all on the schedule.
