Secrecy hinders South Africa's AIDS fight
Andile Ntingi
Secrecy and a fear of stigma are holding back the fight against the rise of AIDS among South African boxers, those in the sport say.
South Africa's second most popular sport after soccer has seen a rising number of young fighters contracting the disease which affects a staggering one in nine of the population.
But exact figures for infection rates among boxers are hard to come by.
Boxing attracts many youngsters seeking a route out of South Africa's poverty-stricken townships. But that route is blocked if they lose their licences to box after testing positive for HIV/AIDS.
"People are very secretive about the issue," said trainer Mzimasi Mnguni who works in the Border region which, together with Gauteng Province, has produced nearly all the country's world champions.
"If the boxer is HIV positive, he does not come forward and say 'I am HIV positive'," Mnguni said.
"I know there are quite a few boxers who have picked up AIDS and it is affecting the sport quite badly," Brian Mitchell, former International Boxing Federation (IBF) and World Boxing Association (WBA) junior lightweight champion, told Reuters.
The now-retired Mitchell, former trainer of current World Boxing Organisation (WBO) middleweight champion Harry Simon, said he had constantly advised his boxers to practise safe sex to protect themselves against the virus.
ANNUAL TESTING
South Africa has more people living with HIV/AIDS than any other country in the world, accounting for some 4.74 million of the 28 million people infected in Africa. The virus is the biggest killer on the continent.
The country's boxing commission tests fighters when they apply for new licences at the beginning of each year and those who test HIV positive are barred from boxing again.
But the commission has a policy of not publicising figures of boxers affected by HIV/AIDS -- a strategy followed by other boxing commissions around the world.
In 1995, the commission announced that 30 boxers had been infected by HIV/AIDS, a disclosure which sparked controversy in international boxing circles. Officials have never publicly released figures again.
"The reaction worldwide was very negative and as a result that became a lesson for the national boxing commission...They decided that they are not going to do it again," Bett Blewett, editor of Boxing World, told Reuters.
"Other commissions around the world don't release figures...even in the United States the commissions do not disclose how many boxers are HIV positive and they would instead take their licences away," he added.
RAISING AWARENESS
"The incidence of AIDS is far higher than the figures show because many boxers do not go back to the commission to reveal their situations when they test HIV positive," said Siyabulela Bhungane, an East London-based doctor.
Bhungane said the policy of keeping figures confidential should be replaced with a public disclosure strategy to raise awareness about the disease.
"I think that statistics should be made available to the public to help the boxers understand the problem they are facing because the incidence of AIDS is rising," he said.
South Africa's confidentiality stance contributed to an incident five years ago at the All Africa Games in Zimbabwe when Egyptian boxers refused to fight South Africans. The Egyptians said they feared catching the virus due to South Africa's status as the HIV/AIDS epicentre.
Controversy has not been seen in boxing only. President Thabo Mbeki's government has been criticised for questioning the causal link between HIV and AIDS.
This year the government made a significant turnabout in its AIDS policy, promising to provide anti-retroviral drugs to rape victims and extend a mother-to-child programme throughout the country from December. The government had previously maintained that anti-retrovirals could be more dangerous than the disease itself because of their toxicity.
