Prudence Nobantu Mabele
Prudence Nobantu Mabele was a South African activist who advocated for the rights of women and children living with HIV/AIDS, and against gender-based violence. She was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in 1990 and went public with her status in 1992. She set up the Positive Women's Network in 1996. She worked with UNAIDS and also qualified as a sangoma. She was the recipient of many awards, including the Felipa de Souza award in 1999. In 2004, she carried the Olympic flame. She died in 2017 and in her memory the International AIDS Society set up an annual prize for gender activists.
Early life
Prudence Nobantu Mabele was born in the Wattville township near Benoni, in the east of Johannesburg, South Africa on 21 July 1971. She was raised by her grandmother Nosifako Elizabeth Mabele and her grandfather July Mabele, as her mother was in exile and her father an uMkhonto we Sizwe soldier. The first of four sisters, Prudence left Wattville for Pietermaritzburg to obtain secondary education and afterwards attended the Technikon Witwatersrand and Cape Town Technikon.She was first diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in 1990. Despite several challenges occasioned by the diagnosis of HIV infection at a young age, Prudence successfully obtained a diploma in light current electrical engineering in 1994. Her other academic accomplishments include a diploma in psychology at Intec College in 1996, a diploma in Management from the Wits Business School and Certificates on "Women in Management", "HIV and AIDS Leadership" and "Monitoring and Evaluation for Sexual and Reproductive Health Programs.
Career
In 1992, Mabele made her positive HIV status public, making her one of the first South African women to do so. She became an activist for HIV awareness, founding the Positive Women's Network in 1996. At the time of her death, Mabele was the President of the Society for Women and AIDS in Africa and Deputy Chair of the Civil Society Forum – South African National AIDS Council. Mabele was a founding co-chair of WomenNOW! Summit on Pan-African & African Diasporan Women's Sexual & Reproductive Health and Justice. She was also a frequent collaborator with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.Mabele completed her training as a sangoma in 2004. She took ARVs when they became available on the public health system in South Africa. She supported the use of ARVs because she herself had first-hand seen the destruction caused by AIDS. Mabele answered her calling to become a traditional healer several years after starting ARVs, and almost a decade after she found out her HIV status. Mabele was the target of a march in 2004 when more than 500 traditional healers marched to give her a petition against the Treatment Action Campaign. The issue was that TAC was only promoting ARVs and not traditional medicine.