Nkosi's Aids struggle ends

JOHANNESBURG -- 12-year-old Aids activist Nkosi Johnson, who challenged the government's Aids policies and united millions of South Africans in the fight against the disease, has died.

Nkosi, who was born HIV-positive, died yesterday morning after becoming desperately ill at the end of December last year.

He was initially given nine months to live when his adoptive mother Gail Johnson took him in at the age of two.

Johnson runs Nkosi's Haven across town from her house in Melville. The haven is home to 20 children and 11 of their mothers.

Nkosi first came to the fore in 1997 when Johnson successfully took on parents at the Melville Primary School who were against the boy's admission. Last year he completed grade four at the school.

Shortly before Nkosi's death, his headmaster said 80% of the pupils at his school did not know he had Aids. For the past four years they would just play together like children do, he said.

Nkosi went on to steal the hearts of thousands at the 13th International Aids Conference in Durban last July.

He told the packed audience, including President Thabo Mbeki, that he wanted AZT to be given to HIV-positive pregnant mothers to prevent transmission of the disease to their unborn babies. He was loudly cheered.

"We are normal human beings, we can walk and talk. You can't get Aids by hugging, kissing and holding hands," he told the audience.

Nkosi said he was taken from his mother Daphne when he was two years old, because she also suffered from the disease and could not support him.

The speech was broadcast live across the globe.

Mbeki and his government were severely criticised for their policy of withholding AZT and other anti-retroviral drugs from HIV-positive pregnant women.

However, the government recently changed its stance and promised that pregnant women infected with HIV would be treated with anti-retrovirals.

With his mature views and sense of humour, Nkosi soon became an international symbol in the fight against the disease.

His last speaking engagement was at an Aids conference in Atlanta, Georgia last October.

"He has a delightful sense of humour and perception way beyond his years," Johnson said of her son.

Former president Nelson Mandela said Nkosi had inspired and touched the hearts of millions of people. He praised Nkosi as an "icon of the struggle for life".

Nkosi turned 12 on February 4. -- Sapa