Remembering Nkosi Johnson, 16 years on
South Africa remembers HIV/Aids activist Nkosi Johnson, who died on this day in 2001.
Nkosi, who was born with HIV, died at the age of 12. At the time of his death he was the longest-surviving child born with HIV in the country.
He was posthumously awarded the first KidsRights Foundation's International Children's Peace Prize in Rome in November 2001 for his efforts in support of the rights of children with HIV/Aids.
He rose to international prominence in July 2000 when he delivered his self-written address, televised worldwide, to 10 000 delegates at the 13th International Aids Conference in Durban.
Who was Nkosi Johnson?
Nkosi was born Xolani Nkosi on 4 February 1989 in Johannesburg. His mother, Nonthlanthla Daphne Nkosi, was HIV-positive and passed the virus on to her unborn child. He became a statistic: one of more than 70 000 children born HIV-positive in South Africa every year.
Xolani was a fighter. He survived beyond his second birthday, unusual in HIV- infected babies. As the disease began to take its toll on Daphne, she and Nkosi were admitted to an Aids care centre in Johannesburg.
It was there that Gail Johnson, a volunteer worker, first saw the baby boy and his ailing mother. She was later to become his foster mother.
"It was a very personal and mutual understanding," Johnson said. "I had had a graphic encounter with an Aids death close to my family, and I wanted to do something more than just talk about it. And there was Nkosi. All I had to do was to reach out to him," she says.