South African woman receives award for AIDS work

Patricia de Lille, head of South Africa's Independent Democrats Party, on Sunday received the HIV/AIDS Activist Award from Canada-based South African Women for Women for her efforts in fighting AIDS in Africa, the Panafrican News Agency reports. De Lille is an outspoken opponent of the ruling African National Congress Party's unwillingness to focus on AIDS issues in the nation, where as many as 5 million people are infected with HIV. She has called for the establishment of a commission to examine possible civil rights abuses by the nation's leaders for not doing more to treat the country's HIV-positive population and has urged South African president Thabo Mbeki to abandon his opposition to antiretroviral treatment.