Gaborone, Botswana – Dickson Tapela and Mbuso Piye are two of nearly 1,000 foreign prisoners languishing in Botswana’s 23 state prisons.<\/p>\n
The pair, from Zimbabwe, are both serving 10-year prison sentences for armed robbery. They shot to fame after filing a court case challenging the Botswana government\u2019s policy of denying AIDS treatment to foreign inmates.<\/p>\n
Both men have been living with HIV\/AIDS for several years and have no access to anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs).<\/p>\n
Tapela says that after being sentenced to a decade behind bars, his girlfriend informed him that she had been diagnosed with HIV and advised him to go for a test, which turned out to be positive.<\/p>\n
Piye could not explain the circumstances that led to his infection. But another prisoner, George Vingaso, who is not party to the case, told Al Jazeera that after he was extradited from South Africa\u2019s North West province and convicted of car theft in Botswana, he was denied ARV treatment, though he was receiving it in South Africa.<\/p>\n
Tapela and Piye hope that their legal battle against the Botswana government might change the policy that denies foreign prisoners access to ARVs.<\/p>\n
The government only provides non-citizen prisoners with treatment for opportunistic infections, such as tuberculosis.<\/p>\n
Foreign inmates are expected to finance their own HIV\/AIDS treatment, according to Botswana government’s HIV\/AIDS policy guide…<\/p>\n