`Live as God intended'
2005-12-07
“WE should not live by our standards, but the way God intended.”
Many a tear was shed at Thursday’s World Aids Day Commemoration in Paarl, when former inmate Mkaya Olivier shared his life story and his plea with the audience.
“I am HIV positive and I didn’t get it from my mother or a blood transfusion, but through sex - just like 95% of sufferers.
“I don’t know who gave it to me or to whom I gave the virus,” was his honest testimony. Olivier said he wanted to kill himself when he first tested positive.
“But it is a preventable disease, not caused by insects or parasites. It is about the way we live - having sex without thinking of the consequences.”
Olivier was sentenced in 1990, but didn’t know about his HIV status until he contracted TB in 2002, while in Paardeberg Prison.
His condition was so bad, that he was sent back to his home town of Oudtshoorn.
“I thought I would die soon.”
“At this stage I realised God wanted to forgive me and I accepted his forgiveness.
“I forgave the person who infected me and went to Oudtshoorn, expecting to die.
“God helped me: My CD count was under 200 - today it is over 820,” he said proudly, adding that he is not on anti-retrovirals.
Olivier recently came back to Paarl to serve the last days of his sentence before he was paroled.
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