Asserting rights : HIV-positive mothers accessing primary healthcare in Tshwane Metro

Abstract

Appendices 2 and 3 were not provided by the author. HIV/AIDS has sown devastation in post-apartheid South Africa. Women are particularly vulnerable to HIV-infection and the effects of HIV/AIDS as a result of disadvantaged social and economic positions. Women’s positions have been structured by South Africa’s colonial and apartheid past that excluded black South Africans from citizenship. The Constitution and Bill of Rights that followed the democratic transition in the 1990s, was a first step towards addressing the legacy of the past. In spite of gains in the Bill of Rights, women in post-apartheid South Africa still battle to realise their rights fully. This dissertation argues that a feminist conceptualisation of citizenship helps us understand why many South African women do not yet enjoy full citizenship. It explores the experiences of HIV-positive women who have accessed primary healthcare, and in particular, the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) programme. HIV-positive mothers struggle to realise their right to health in a post-apartheid context of neo-liberalism and gender inequality. Within the healthcare system they faced reproductive rights abuses which undermine their right to dignity and full citizenship. AFRIKAANS : MIV/VIGS saai verwoesting in post-apartheid Suid-Afrika. As gevolg van minderbevoorregte sosiale en ekonomiese posisies is vroue veral kwesbaar vir MIV-infeksie en vir die gevolge van MIV/VIGS. Vroue se posisies is gestruktureer deur Suid-Afrika se koloniale en apartheidsverlede wat swart Suid-Afrikaners uit burgerskap uitgesluit het. Tydens die demokratiese oorgang in die 1990s was die Grondwet en Handves van Menseregte ’n eerste stap om die verlede aan te spreek. Ten spyte van vordering in die Handves van Menseregte worstel vroue in post-apartheid Suid-Afrika steeds om hulle regte ten volle te realiseer. Hierdie verhandeling redeneer dat ’n feministiese konseptualisering van burgerskap ons help om te verstaan waarom baie Suid-Afrikaanse vroue steeds nie volle burgerskap geniet nie. Dit ondersoek die ervaringe van MIV-positiewe vroue wat primêre gesondheidsorg fasiliteite besoek het, en spesifiek deelgeneem het aan die voorkoming van moeder-na-kind oordrag programme. In ’n post-apartheid konteks van neo-liberalisme en gender ongelykheid het MIV-positiewe moeders gesukkel om hulle reg tot gesondheid te realiseer. Binne die gesondheidsisteem was hulle gekonfronteer met reproduktiewe regte oortredings wat hulle reg tot waardigheid en volle burgerskap ondermyn het. Copyright