SOUTH AFRICA

They may have rid themselves of the
shackles of the oppressive
apartheid regime, but freedom apparently still manages to elude the Blacks
of South Africa. They
have, in fact, been invaded
and held captive by a dead lier foe: the AIDS virus.

According to a recent
study conducted by the
health officials in South
Africa, the number of p6ople
infected$ with Hiv has
increased 10-fold since 1990.
Today, about 1.2 million
South Africans - or nearly 8
per cent of the, entire population - are in the throes of
this distase, By the year 2000,
at least 8 million are likely to
join the clan of the doomed.

"What is most disturbing
for all of us is that this disease
is growing at such a rate
among the Black people
only," laments, Clarence
Mini, co-chairperson of the
National AIDS Coordinating
Council of South Africa. And
the blame lies squarely on the
'erstwhile White minority
governm6t, which spent
less than a quarter of its
expenses on the health
outlay of whites, for the Blacks.