Everybody Must Fight AIDS, Mandela Says

Former South African President Nelson Mandela, surrounded by rock stars, launched a book of photographs of a major anti-AIDS concert on Thursday with a call to ordinary people to take a lead in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

“We all have a responsibility to act. Each of us must do more. We are all leaders now and good leaders must lead,” he told a news conference at the book launch in London. The 46664 concert in Cape Town last year took its name from Mandela’s prison number during his nearly 27 years in apartheid jails. Some 30 artists from Bob Geldof to Bono took part and the concert was beamed to an audience of up to two billion people. The frail 86-year-old said it was not enough to rely on governments and the international drug companies — which were not doing enough — to stop the disease that infects 37.2 million people worldwide. Joined by Annie Lennox, Brian May, Roger Taylor, Peter Gabriel and Yusuf Islam — all performers at the Cape Town concert — Mandela declared that “46664 is to raise awareness and inspire acts to fight HIV/AIDS. It shows we all care. Only by working together can we stop the spread of HIV/AIDS.” “Every HIV infection can be prevented and every AIDS infection can be treated. Together we can make the dream a reality,” he added. John Samuel, chief executive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, said he hoped that 46664 would have raised $15 million by the end of 2005 from the concert, a DVD, the book of photos and two further concerts next year. Samuel said it was particularly important to put women at the forefront of the campaign to eradicate the killer disease. “We won’t change the world overnight, but we are taking one step at a time,” Samuel said, urging Britain, which takes over leadership of the G8 group of leading industrialized countries in January and the EU presidency in July, to fight for action. (Source: Reuters, Nov 2004)