Friday, November 1, 2024

Mogae in the eye of the storm

He has received kudos as one of the most progressive African leaders for a sterling effort to keep spiraling HIV/AIDS infections at bay. In 2008, he received the Mo Ibrahim prize for good governance in Africa. But four years on, Festus Mogae’s crusade to legalise prostitution and homosexuality is stirring mixed emotions

It was vintage Festus Mogae. An enthusiastic gathering of several hundred people at the Bell Harbour International Conference Center in Seattle, United States, earlier this year witnessed as Botswana’s former president fielded questions on a topic he has made intensely his own ÔÇô HIV/AIDS.

He was speaking at an event sponsored by the World Affairs Council.

He spoke of how at the peak of the pandemic, nearly 40 percent of Botswana’s adult population was infected. The figures have tapered off since, but still one of every four Batswana between the ages of 15-49 is estimated to carry HIV.

“We didn’t know what hit us,” Mogae told the gathering. “We were faced with the possibility of extinction.”

For his captivated audience, it was probably somewhat fascinating that Mogae became President of Botswana in 1998, after new anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs had been discovered that could prevent AIDS in HIV-infected people. But then, the drugs were considered too expensive and complicated to manage.

“Many said it was irresponsible to even talk about treatment for Africa,” Mogae said. The thinking was that talk of treatment raised unreasonable expectations that would only inflame an already massive tragedy.

To get treatment rolled out in Botswana, Mogae engaged pharmaceutical companies, asking them to consider discounting the drugs. “We told them we could afford about 5 percent of their price,” he said.

Merck came on board to support treatment. Then in 2002, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced the launch of a $100 million programme aimed at making ARV drugs accessible. In the event, Botswana became the first African nation to guarantee treatment for everyone infected with HIV.

It marked a critical turning point in Africa’s battle against AIDS. As the British Guardian newspaper reported in 2002, if the programme failed to show progress it would damage plans to expand treatment throughout the rest of Africa.

Mogae was instrumental in making the program a success. He was publicly tested for HIV to encourage others to seek testing and counseling. He pressed for new laws protecting gays and others from discrimination because he recognised the critical need for such protections as a public health measure.

These days, the former president’s sentiments on HIV/AIDS, sex workers and the rights of gays have become stronger. He wants Botswana to decriminalise homosexuality and prostitution to prevent the spread of HIV. He says Botswana should not regard homosexuals ÔÇô a tiny minority here ÔÇô as criminals.

Mogae, who chairs the National Aids Council, said it was difficult to promote safe sex when prostitution and homosexuality were illegal. He is also campaigning for the distribution of condoms in prisons. He said the government’s failure to give prisoners’ condoms was worsening the HIV/Aids pandemic. “If people can go to prison HIV negative and come out of it HIV positive, it means that prisons, whatever the law says, are one of the sources of infection,” the former president told the BBC’s Network Africa programme.

Mogae’s sentiments have a struck a responsive chord among politicians and the civil society here.

Botlogile Tshireletso, assistant minister for local government and housing, believes it is time government discussed the issue of legalising prostitution. “We should consider looking at it because it is there ÔÇô we should as government take the initiative to do something to help these workers,” Tshireletso told the BBC.

And while agreeing, opposition Botswana Democratic Congress (BCP) leader Dumelang Saleshando believes legalising the sex trade would involve a steep battle. “The majority view is very clear, Botswana is against the legislation making illegal sex work a legal economic activity,” he told the BBC. “At the same time, you can’t ignore it…the industry itself is one of the drivers of the virus.”

Vice president of the Botswana Movement for Democracy, Botsalo Ntuane, says: “Commercial sex workers have a right to be protected and I believe decriminalising their work would pave way for measures that would put an end to their harassment.”

Director of Botswana Network on Ethics, Law and HIV/AIDS, Uyapo Ndadi says: “Criminalising of sex work in Botswana leaves sex workers vulnerable to sexual and physical abuse, extortion from law enforcement agents and other human rights violations and lack of safe and supportive working conditions which render sex workers particularly vulnerable to HIV.”

Clearly, the presidency acted as an impediment for Mogae in his views on gay rights and prostitution. Now freed of the strictures of the office, Moage now says he now free to say things that he would have never said as President because of political implications. “I was not willing to lose elections on behalf of the gays,” he told the Mail &Guardian in March this year.

But there is a counter torrent to Mogae’s views. There are those like one Eusebius Mc Kaiser who describes the ex-president’s attitude as ‘deeply immoral’. University of Botswana social scientist, Log Raditlhokwa labels Mogae’s actions as carnally minded and spiritually insensitive.

And despite research that infection rates are worst along commercial truck routes, there is an unwillingness to legalise brothels. Indeed, many people here disapprove of sex workers, many of who evidently are for the idea of legalising their trade. “If it is legalised more people are going to engage in commercial sex which means there’ll be more infections,” one woman told the BBC.

“Legalising sex work will help us to stand up for our rights… and get support for HIV and Aids.”

A few men, though, spoke in favour of the sentiment for legalisation of the trade. “It should be legalised because it’s a lot harder to govern something you don’t have the statistics on,” said one man, choosing to remain unnamed.

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