The film Tsotsi, set in a shanty town called Soweto in the outskirts of Johannesburg, tells the story of an African teenage boy who kills unthinkingly, but us transformed by a baby boy he accidentally kidnaps. Tsotsi, which translates to “thug”, and three other boys named Boston (Teacher), Aap, and Butcher, are all a part of a gang that Tsotsi is considered the leader of. The boys provide for themselves by targeting and looting people on the train. In the beginning of the film, the boys follow a man onto the train where they stab and rob him without anyone noticing. Later that night, Boston begins to taunt Tsotsi about his inability to show remorse, and his inability to understand the word “decency.” The two begin fighting and Tsotsi heavily beats Boston before he runs off. Tsotsi eventua
lly finds himself in a gated community where he sees a woman getting out of her car to buzz the gate. Seeing an opportunity, Tsotsi shoots the woman and drives away with the car. While driving away with the car, Tsotsi discovers that he is not alone and that there is a baby boy in the back of the car. After ditching the car on the side of a road, Tsotsi decides to take the baby boy home with him. As Tsotsi begins to take care of the baby, whom he has begun calling David, he begins having flashbacks from when he was younger. From Tsotsi’s flashbacks, it is gathered that his real name is David, his mother was deathly sick with AIDS, his father was a horrible man, and Tsotsi ran away from his home. While the film touches on the epidemic of HIV in South Africa by showing the banner at the terminal that said “We are all affected by HIV/AIDS.” and how Tsotsi is essentially abandoned when his mother begins dying due to being afflicted with Aids, it does not go into the history of HIV or just how big of an issue HIV is in South America.
The history of HIV in South Africa began around 1982. During this time, the country was in the middle of the dismantling of the apartheid state; therefore, at the time, the issue of HIV was largely ignored. In 1987, the civil liberties of people with HIV were then restricted by two laws. The state was given the authority to quarantine people they knew/suspected to be HIV-positive and immigration authorities were allowed to examine non-South African citizens who tested positive for HIV and were instructed to detain/deport them against their will. In the late 1980s, AIDS Training, Information, and Counselling Centers were opened and provided HIV testing but due to their location, the vast majority did not have access to the centers. HIV rates had increased by sixty percent in the 1990s and by the time the government acknowledged the growing health pandemic, South Africa had already become the largest population of people the world with HIV. By 2000, the South African Department of Health outlined a five-year plan; however, as it was not supported by the government, the plan was not put into action as quickly as hoped for with only a few people showing up to receive free antiretroviral medication which allows those affected by HIV to have long and happy lives. Also by 2000, HIV among pregnant women in South Africa rose from eight-tenths of one percent to over thirty percent.
South Africa has the largest treatment program in the world. Their treatment program accounts for 20% of antiretroviral therapy. According to UNAIDS, South Africa currently has 4.4 million people receiving treatments for HIV. The antiretrovirals are considered complex medications, and the health recovery varies depending on patients have steady access to treatment. Over the years, South Africa’s ART services have undergone extensive expansion. In 2016, it was implemented that everyone with a positive diagnosis was eligible to start treatment causing the number of patients to more than double in just one year. At first, it was a large concern that the increase in patients would result in the clinics being too widely-spread, and the quality of care would suffer, but studies show that the increase has had no effect on patient outcomes either in deaths or illnesses. But, it has been shown that men were more likely to start ART at an older age and had almost double the mortality rate than that of women. Another success in South Africa is the reduction of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. The rate of mother-to-child transmission HIV decreased from 8% to 2%, and the death rate among children due to HIV dropped by 20%.
The biggest HIV epidemic is located in South Africa where, according to a study conducted in 2017, there are 7.2 million people living with HIV. Also, while the HIV prevalence rate is high among the general population of South Africa at 18.9%, it has been found that the prevalence rates are higher among men who have sex with other men, transgender women, sex workers, and those who inject drugs. It has also been found that those between the ages of 15 and twenty-four make up the largest proportion infected by HIV. Also, women account for about half of all new infections due to social/economic disparities and high rates of rape; furthermore, one of the most significant damages caused by HIV is the number of children orphaned. It is estimated that there were 1,400,000 children orphaned due to the disease in South Africa at the end of 2007 which at the time of the study was a higher figure than any other country. South Africa has been doing many things to reduce their amount of HIV cases. Treatment is becoming more available for those who have tested HIV-positive, efforts in prevention of mother-to-child transmission, promotion of condom use and distribution, voluntary medical male circumcision, the use of antiretroviral drugs to protect HIV-negative people from infection (PrEP), educating the young people on HIV, and by promoting HIV awareness.
Works Cited
Cichocki, Mark. “The Spotlight on HIV in South Africa.” Verywell Health, Verywellhealth,
www.verywellhealth.com/hiv-around-the-world-south-africa-48673.
Ebert, Roger. “Tsotsi Movie Review & Film Summary (2006) | Roger Ebert.” RogerEbert.com, Brian Grazer, 9 Mar. 2006, www.rogerebert.com/reviews/tsotsi-2006.
French, Philip. “Tsotsi.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 19 Mar. 2006, www.theguardian.com/film/2006/mar/19/review.features.
“HIV and AIDS in South Africa.” AVERT, Avert, 23 Oct. 2018, www.avert.org/professionals/hiv-around-world/sub-saharan-africa/south-africa.
Hodes, Rebecca. “HIV/AIDS in South Africa.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History, 21 Mar. 2018, africanhistory.oxfordre.com/
view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9 780190277734-e-299.
Sahoboss. “HIV/Aids in South Africa.” South African History Online,
9 Feb. 2018, www.sahistory.org.za/article/hivaids-south-africa.
“South Africa.” UNAIDS, 9 Nov. 2018, www.unaids.org/en/regionscountries/
countries/southafrica.
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