Some 5.6 million South Africans are infected with HIV or Aids – a greater number than in any other country. The epidemic claims about 600 lives every day. Yet the shame attached to it is so great that sufferers often refuse to seek treatment. HIV tests are resisted and families routinely deny the cause of death of relatives.

President Thabo Mbeki was criticised when he claimed in 2003 that he knew no one who had died of Aids. Mr Mandela's announcement was an implicit rebuke to his successor. "It gives a very bad reflection of members of a family if they do not come out bravely and say, 'A member of my family has died of Aids,' " said Mr Mandela, who has now lost three of his six children. "It is better to maintain your integrity and your dignity by saying, 'I am suffering from this disease.' That to me is the proper approach. It serves no purpose to hide the illness from which you are suffering." Mr Mbeki has questioned whether HIV causes Aids, and until last year his government refused to distribute anti-retroviral drugs that arrest development of the syndrome.