South Africa to Pay HIV Positive People who Tattoo Status on their Private Parts

  Reportedly, confirmed HIV positive South Africans that volunteer to be marked near their genital area with a  tatoo depicting their status, will in addition to free counselling and medication. be paid an equivalent of N840, 000 (50 000 Rands) each, according to a  bill newly signed by President Jacob Zuma.

  The bill, according to a report by Radio City, a local South  African radio station, is widely regarded as one of the greatest steps in the history of combating the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the country which 

has the highest HIV prevalence in Africa.

  Zuma who is reported to to have volunteered to be the first South African citizen to get his HIV status tatted near his genitals, however  announced that only the first 10 million people (who already tested positive) to volunteer to have their HIV statuses tatted on their genitals would be given the money in form of a funeral expense voucher.

After signing the bill, Zuma was quoted as saying:

  “The mark is to protect those who can’t say no to sex. I mean if you can’t read between the lines you should read between the legs because that’s where the status would be tatted. The choice to be HIV positive is now in your hands or your genitals for that matter…. We also encourage those who had been living with the virus to go to the nearest public hospitals to get their status tatted in,” he noted. South Africa has the world’s highest HIV caseload and premature deaths of 300,000 people. The government is distributing life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs to people infected with the virus.

  Vanguard adds that in 2006, Zuma faced charges of raping an HIV-positive family friend, and was ridiculed for testifying that he took a shower after sex to lower the risk of infection with HIV. His determination to help millions South Africans infected with HIV and around 60,000 babies born HIV infected each year.

  “Let there be no more shame, no more blame, no more discrimination and no more stigm. Let the politicisation and endless debates about HIV and AIDS stop,” Zuma noted.