THENEWSOUTHAFRICA
was told that the place was crippled by crime and corruption. Nurses said
that drugs, food, crockery, and essential equipment were frequently
stolen; thieves seized the property of patients who died; and nurses were
afraid to work at night "as they are threatened inside the hospital by gun-
wielding thugs." A month later, four senior doctors reported that the
health services in Gauteng province were on the verge of collapse from a
shortage of staff and money.s" Bythat time, South Africa was in the early
stages of a medical catastrophe. The diseases of the AIDs-related complex,
which in Africa are spread mainly by heterosexual contact and contami-
nated blood, were killing more people in East and Southern Africa than
had been killed by all the wars in the region, and they were already wreak-
ing havoc in South Africa. According to official estimates, 3.6 million
South Africans were HIVpositive in 1999, and the number was increasing
by more than half a million a year. A quarter of a million South Africans
would die of AIDSeach year by 2002, rising to half a million by 2007. UN-
AIDSestimated that life expectancy in South Africa would fall from 68
years in 1998 to 48 in 2010. On account of AIDS,South Africa dropped