Excerpts from the Town Hall Meeting, run by Greater Nelspruit Rape Intervention Project (GRIP) and Chief of the Magoba Trust, Greater Nelspruit area, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. The meeting was held to address the incidence of child rape and AIDS in the local community. Traditional healers, sangomas, were also present.

CHIEF: It's a great privilege for me to stand here in front of you with the people from GRIP. They would like to have your views concerning the bad things that are happening in our community, which is called rape. And it's something we're looking forward to you discussing, the issue of rape, and the issue of HIV/AIDS.

PAKSIMA: What do you think is the best way to handle this ... this crisis? Do you think it's a crisis?

CHIEF: I think this is the biggest crisis we have in South Africa. I think we need the support from the government to supply us with the tablets or any kind of medication that the government can provide to us. If there are some NGO's that can provide our people with the medication to prevent AIDS and also to prevent the transfer of this virus. I think that also the traditional healers can also contribute in this, asking the assistance of the ancestors to help us to get rid of this kind of disease. And also if they have herbs that can also help the western kind of medicine, then they can contribute to that.

PAKSIMA: Can you tell us what sangomas do?

SANGOMA: I can say the responsibility of the sangoma is to talk to the ancestors when maybe something just worries you and maybe you feel sick so you come to the sangoma.

PAKSIMA: What do you think is the cause of this problem of rape in your community?

SANGOMA: It's difficult for us to tell what causes rape because that came from the inner person. I think the government doesn't take responsibility of punishing the people who are raping the little ones. It is not the responsibility of sangomas to know where does this thing come from. Even the sangomas do not know where does this bad spirit come from because we are sangomas but we also have children and we don't like the secret that is here among the community.

PAKSIMA: So you blame the government?

SANGOMA: Yes, I put the responsibility on the government. They should take care of the people because they are our eye to take care of the community.

PAKSIMA: Why is there so much HIV?AIDS here?

SANGOMA: It is difficult to explain the HIV virus because no one knows where it comes from. And it's not true if you sleep with a child of three years then you'll be cured from it. It's not true, it's just a silliness of people, of men if you can put it straight.

QUESTION: Some have said that it is the sangomas who have said that if you sleep with a child it will take away HIV.

SANGOMA: There is no such thing. That is killing. The sangomas don't say that. That is killing. I've got a little girl and I won't allow any man to rape my child. Because if I can give that to a person, to say, go rape that person, because you will be cured, it's like myself I am killing too. These people are doing it for their own. There's no one who's giving them this info, they just try to protect themselves - it's just the protection of the individual.