bafana

let us for get about the bad things she had make,our presedient ubaba u j z has side is true that we must remember her with good things that is an african culture,may her soul rest in pace.

Lebo

Bafana, I agree with you. I even want to take it further. Villifying an individual without being balanced in how you present her contribution, can only serve to polarise the country. We could have done better as a country under Manto’s leadership to deal decisively with HIV. But right now, the anti-Manto sentiments are not helping us to learn from the past. I have always thought of myself as critical but there is a point that the negative focus on her legacy made me revolted me, especially from the comments of some of our White South Africans who seem to want to deny what it took to liberate this country by denying her contribution in the struggle. While it does not give anone license to then become a bad leader, but by refusing to acknowledge it, we fall into the trap of throwing away the baby with the bath water .

Manto was not perfect and we should be critical of how the country dealt with HIV during her leadership but the one message I have learnt is that negative messages do not work. Instead throughout this week, we have watched two camps, others painting her as the devil and others painting her as an angel and I want to believe that it is the over-emphasis on the negative messaging. Let us not forget that what makes HIV a complex issue is that for some people, especially those battling poverty, it is not the no.1 issue in their minds; survival is. Secondly, we will only win against HIV if we stand united. Some of the comments I have read makes me wonder if we can deal with this problem as one united nation facing a common enemy.