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After being diagnosed with HIV at 33, retired Constitutional Court justice Edwin Cameron never thought he’d make it to 40. He’s now 73 and part of a generation that is growing older thanks to antiretrovirals and, he says, the activism that made sure it was available in South Africa. Photo: Stefan Els
AIDS
Video

HIV made him expect to die at 40. At 73, Edwin Cameron asks: Who’s planning for our ageing survivors?

At 33, the retired Constitutional Court justice thought he had, maybe, seven years left. His story traces the arc from certain death because of Aids to a chronic, manageable…

  • Tanya Pampalone
  • Mia Malan
14 min read
They should be in hospitals but because of system failures they languish in jails. Mothers tell of their suffering (Photo by Michele Spatari / AFP)
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH

Neglected and abused, state patients endure prison ‘nightmare’

They should be in hospitals but because of system failures they languish in jails. Mothers tell of their suffering

  • Sheree Bega
  • Eunice Masson
9 min read
Mandatory vaccination involves, at a glance, the constitutional rights to bodily integrity, privacy, to protection against unfair discrimination and to freedom of thought, religion, conscience and opinion. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
ALAN DODSON

The uncertain consensus around vaccine mandates

Lawyers agree that the issue is inevitably heading for constitutional challenge, but not all accept the mainstream view that the limitation of rights is justifiable

  • Emsie Ferreira
6 min read
Gospel singer Rebecca Malope receives her National Order from President Cyril Ramaphosa.
ANTHONY DYKES

Ramaphosa presents national orders to friends of democracy and South Africa

On Thursday the president honoured ​​South Africans and eminent foreign nationals with the highest award the country offers

  • Eyaaz Matwadia
3 min read
Right to healthcare: Edwin Cameron, the inspecting judge at the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services. Photo: Madelene Cronjé
BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS

‘Vaccinate inmates to avoid crisis’

Delaying the vaccination of prisoners could lead to a public health disaster

  • Chris Gilili
3 min read
The Salem Cricket Ground claims to be the oldest in South Africa. The first recorded match to be played there, according to club historian Sheila Long, was between colonial settlers in 1844. (Photo: Ihsaan Haffejee)
ASSEGAI RIVER

It’s just not cricket

Near Makhanda in the Eastern Cape in the village of Salem is a cricket pitch that is said to be the oldest in the country. Watered by blood and trauma, rolled with frontier…

  • Niren Tolsi
16 min read
(Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
ANTIRETROVIRALS

Eusebius McKaiser: A witness to Covid-19 stigma

Let us please not repeat the devastating Aids story where people died of shame rather than admit being infected by the virus

  • Eusebius McKaiser
6 min read
Justice Edwin Cameron has always been an activist judge; his approach has been to marry intellectual rigour with the imperative to realise the transformative power of the law. (Madelene Cronje/M&G)
CARLOS AMATO 1

Edwin Cameron’s fight for humane prisons

The retired Constitutional Court judge is the new inspector of prisons and he argues that SA’s courts should stop filling them up

  • Carlos Amato
10 min read
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s choices were expected, with Justices Zukisa Tshiqi (above) and Steven Majiedt being the two most senior of the judges interviewed and short-listed by the Judicial Service Commission in April.
ANNALI BASSON

Ramaphosa makes his first ConCourt appointments

Justices Zukisa Tshiqi and Steven Majiedt will begin at the Constitutional Court on October 1

  • Franny Rabkin
3 min read
Judge Edwin Cameron has made a tremendous positive impact on the lives of many in South Africa and this is reflected by people’s own accounts of their experiences of him. (Madelene Cronje/M&G)
CONSTITUTIONAL COURT

An open letter of thanks to Justice Edwin Cameron

Twenty-five years on from our first democratic election, the need for role models for young queer people is felt now more than ever

  • Keval Harie
5 min read
Judge Edwin Cameron has made a tremendous positive impact on the lives of many in South Africa and this is reflected by people’s own accounts of their experiences of him. (Madelene Cronje/M&G)
BOOKS

Judge Cameron takes us into his confidence with memoir

Justice: A Personal Account, by Edwin Cameron (Tafelberg).

  • Dennis Davis Author
4 min read
Judge Edwin Cameron has made a tremendous positive impact on the lives of many in South Africa and this is reflected by people’s own accounts of their experiences of him. (Madelene Cronje/M&G)
EDWIN CAMERON

Was I ready to be a judge with HIV?

Judge Edwin Cameron grapples with revealing his HIV status in this extract from his book, "Justice: A Personal Account".

  • Edwin Cameron Author
6 min read
A file photograph of Nelson Mandela in 2002.
EDWIN CAMERON

Madiba: The belated rise of an Aids activist

Mandela regretted not acting on HIV during his presidency, but he made up for it in spades.

  • Mia Malan
8 min read
ARTHUR CHASKALSON

Applause for Mogoeng’s judicial cadenza

Unexpected progressiveness from Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng is drawing a chorus of approval in legal circles.

  • Niren Tolsi
6 min read
CONSTITUTIONAL COURT

Scorpions disbanding unconstitutional

Hawks ‘insufficiently insulated from political interference’, says Concourt

  • Mmanaledi Mataboge
  • Lionel Faull
4 min read
Debate is the answer to prejudice
EDWIN CAMERON

Debate is the answer to prejudice

Justice Edwin Cameron has justly been heralded as an exemplar of the kind of judge required to meet the transformative demands of our Constitution.

  • Staff Reporter
6 min read
EDWIN CAMERON

South Africans ‘still at war with each other’

South Africa is moving further away from the visions of those who struggled for liberation, Jody Kollapen said on Wednesday.

  • Staff Reporter
3 min read
EDWIN CAMERON

View from the top

Almost 10 years after his appointment was blocked by Thabo Mbeki, Edwin Cameron has been confirmed as a judge of the Constitutional Court.

  • Sello S Alcock
6 min read
CONSTITUTIONAL COURT

Constitutional Court shortlist released

The Judicial Service Commission on Thursday released the shortlist of candidates to be interviewed for the Constitutional Court seat due to be vacated

  • Sello S Alcock
1 min read
CONSTITUTIONAL COURT

Concourt post still not filled

The Judicial Service Commission will be re-advertising the position, writes Sello S Alcock.

  • Sello S Alcock
3 min read