In the early 2000s, Dr Thys von Mollendorff was dismissed from his position as senior medical superintendent of Rob Ferreira Hospital in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga. That was because he allowed a rape programme that supplied antiretrovirals to survivors of rape to reduce their risk of HIV infection to operate from the hospital premises without permission from the then provincial Health MEC, Sibongile Manana. Manana claimed that antiretrovirals were poison. In his book, ‘€œDare to care,’€ von Mollendorff explains why he supported the service, known as the Greater Nelspruit Rape Intervention Programme.

‘€œMpumalanga, at that stage, had the third highest rape statistics of all the provinces’€¦ In 2001, it went up to 3 687. In 2001, the rape statistics kept by GRIP, there were 477 rape cases in the Greater Nelspruti area, of which 45 were little girls under five years of age, and 115 children under 10’€, he says.  

He adds that rape survivors became younger and younger, perhaps because of the myth that sex with a virgin could cure AIDS. In ‘€œDare to care,’€ von Mollendorff details all the dramatic events involving the former MEC for Health, Sibongile Manana, and her venomous opposition to antiretrovirals. Here’€™s an extract from the book.

‘€œIn the beautiful Mpumalanga, place of the rising sun, a new day was born for rape survivors when they began to receive the best possible care at the hospital’€™s newly established care room. Dreams of making a difference were cruelly shattered when a high-powered government official became obsessed with bringing down those who had started this initiative and threatened them with brutal steps. So determined was she to get rid of those involved the she would stop at nothing even if it meant rape survivors were sentenced to death in that they could not receive antiretroviral treatment. The Batho Pele principles of putting people first and the Patients’€™ Rights Charter, which guarantees access to the best medical care, were best kept on posters safely mounted on the walls of all health facilities to impress the public. The reality was certainly not a reflection of these rights and principles’€.