TABLE MOUNTAIN GOES RED FOR WORLD AIDS DAY

The City of Cape Town, one of the world’s gay tourism capitals, has announced that it will light the iconic Table Mountain in red on Thursday to mark World AIDS Day 2011.

This is part of the international RED campaign which involves turning iconic landmarks around the world red to highlight the HIV epidemic.

The mountain, recently voted one of the ‘New 7 Wonders of Nature’ in a global poll, will be lit with red lights from 7 p.m. until 11 p.m. on the 1st of December.

Cape Town will also be hosting a number of other events to commemorate the day, including offering free testing in various locations across the city.

This year, the theme for World AIDS Day is: ‘Getting to Zero – Zero New HIV Infections, Zero Discrimination and Zero AIDS-Related Deaths’.

“In getting to zero I urge all Capetonians to empower themselves by knowing their status and getting tested in the run up to World AIDS Day on 1 December,” said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Health, Councillor Lungiswa James.

“A positive HIV status is no longer a death sentence. It can be managed as a chronic disease, but the first crucial step is knowing one’s status.”