At South Africa's first ever Convention for People Living with HIV and Aids, held recently at Midrand, and attended by hundreds of people determined to deal effectively with the epidemic, we honoured Motsoaledi for his hands-on insights into the epidemic (gained when he worked as a doctor in a rural clinic at Jane Furse) and for his commitment to expand treatment and testing and to urge better prevention.
Of course it wasn't always like this. I was diagnosed with severe besetting symptoms of Aids in 1997. The drugs I took were working for me. But I dreaded going public about my status because of stigma. For stigma - a social blemish of disgrace, humiliation and rejection - remains the most intractable problem in the epidemic.
Our country's most poignant casualty to enacted stigma is Gugu Dlamini.
In late December in 1998, she was stoned and stabbed to death in Umlazi outside Durban. Just weeks before, she told Ukhozi FM that she was living with HIV. Members of her own neighbourhood surrounded her house and accused her of shaming her community by announcing her HIV status.
She died in hospital - her body broken not by the HIV she faced with such conspicuous courage, but by the injuries her neighbours inflicted on her.
Her killers still walk free, because the prosecution had to drop charges for lack of evidence.
It was Gugu's death that helped me to go public.
Eleven years after her death we have the tools to deal effectively with Aids. Medically, it is a fully manageable disease - after 12 years on antiretroviral drugs, and looking forward to my fifth Cape Argus cycle race early next year, I can truly testify to this fact.
But our prevention efforts are lacklustre. And too many people are still dying of Aids - unnecessary, anguishing deaths.
Much of the reason lies in stigma. President Zuma took this head-on when he delivered his first major policy address on Aids. A few weeks ago, he gave a remarkable speech to the National Council of Provinces. He emphasised that there must be "no shame, no discrimination and no recrimination".
The president's roots in rural KwaZulu-Natal - one of the epidemic's hot-spots - have clearly given him insight into the urgent need to deal effectively with Aids.
First is prevention - safe, effective, sensible, self-loving, other-loving prevention.
Second is testing. Every single one of us should agree to be tested. And if we've been tested, but more than six months ago, then we must agree to be tested again.
The president's mass testing campaign deserves our fervent support.
Testing opens the door to treatment. No South African should be sick with Aids.
It is true that expanding treatment to cover the many hundreds of thousands who risk death from Aids will not be easy. We need the healthcare infrastructure. We need commitment at middle management capacity and in delivery.
But it can be done.
Aids has always been a preventable calamity. It only requires us to implement relatively simple and manageable steps in prevention, testing and treatment.
But between us and that outcome lie our own fears, and our self-imposed impediment of stigma.
The good news is that it is up to each one of us to end stigma, now. We have the resources and we have the means to end unnecessary deaths from Aids.
We have the means to end new infections. We only have to do better what we know should be done.
As we commemorate World Aids Day, each of us can commit to that responsibility and effort. It's worth it, for us all.
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nxila@thepub_with Schabir