The problems that are facing Zimbabwe are enormous and having lived there for differing periods, I know that stark choices have to be immediately made to save both the country and the present generation from extinction. The country must for its own sake, undergo two more revolutions to clean itself of the baggage it has inherited since it gained its independence. I make no bones about it, like my opposition to Thabo Mbeki’s pseudoscientific policies in South Africa, in order to prevent total economic collapse in Zimbabwe, the present ruler Robert Mugabe has to go.

The statistics are staggering and mean that over 20% of Zimbabweans, aged 15 to 49 are now infected with HIV, and the scourge of AIDS will most probably wipe out an entire generation. This year alone 80,000 will die of the disease and by Christmas 2004 the number of AIDS orphans in Zimbabwe will top 1 million. In Zimbabwe, the number of child orphans is now 7 percent. Because the disease is concentrated in the sexually active population of people aged 15-49, the majority of whom are parents, the implications for Zimbabwe’s future are enormous. The expanding population of orphans will have a devastating impact on the nation’s social and economic infrastructure with many of the children turning to prostitution and theft as a means of looking after their siblings.

However, the spiralling HIV/AIDS problem and the generation of orphans cannot be laid at Mugabe’s footsteps alone. There is little doubt that the rapid spread of AIDS in Zimbabwe is facilitated by a culture of rampant promiscuity and the type of economy that forces many men to work for days, weeks or months, at great distances from their wives and families. This is also a male dominated society, where women are in subservience and many wives and prostitutes often risk physical punishment if they try to get their sexual partner to wear a condom. The second problem is one that I have addressed before is that young girls have little chance of resisting advances from elders who may be infected with HIV. In fact, many men believe that having sexual relations with a virgin will cure them of AIDS and like South Africa, infected men actively seek out young women and the disease proliferates.  The AIDS pandemic in Zimbabwe is not restricted to the poor uneducated urban dweller, but it now has spread to all levels of society. In other words, Zimbabwe must undergo a second revolution, one that addresses behavioural changes in society before it can overcome the ravages of AIDS.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, AIDS can best be described as a 21st century plague. Approximately 28 million people there are HIV positive. Last year 3.4 million adults and children in the region were infected with HIV and 2.3 million died from AIDS-related causes. In some communities along the Zimbabwe-South Africa border, it is estimated that 70 percent of adults are HIV positive. Remeber,  by Christmas 2004 the number of AIDS orphans in Zimbabwe will top 1 million. Jesus once said "Suffer the little children", maybe we should think about that for a moment before we take into our Christmans dinners this year.