Circumcision campaign celebrated
THE SOUTHERN African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (Sactwu) will today celebrate its circumcision campaign by forming a human chain with members displaying 100 000 swatches of fabric – representing the number of male circumcisions that the union funded in the last year – attached to a 2km rope.
Sactwu general secretary André Kriel said the public demonstration was an attempt to encourage union members to “relentlessly fight the scourge” of HIV and Aids.
“During World Aids month, we celebrate the sterling work that our trade union has contributed in this regard. Over the past 12 months alone, our trade union has performed 100 000 male medical circumcisions throughout the country,” he said.
Kriel said the union had accomplished the feat through the Sactwu worker health programme and would demonstrate its impact by holding a massive “lappies human chain”.
This weekend, union members spent their time attaching the 100 000 pieces of material to a rope as a physical representation of what the union had achieved through its worker health programme. The creation of the chain took 30 union volunteers and five days to complete at the union’s hall in Salt River.
“Circumcision helps to reduce the risk of contracting HIV. Although it does not prevent it, circumcision is a major tool to help combat HIV and Aids,” said Kriel.
The chain will stretch from Salt River to Mowbray. “We hope that with this event, South Africans can see for themselves the tremendous contribution which the trade union movement does to help fight HIV and Aids,” said Kriel. “The union has received the necessary permission from all the relevant City of Cape Town authorities to stage this event, the first if its kind globally.”