CRISELDA Kananda discovered she was HIV-positive when she was seven months pregnant and to date, she says, she has never taken antiretroviral (ARV) drugs.
The MetroFM DJ and HIV/Aids activist does not hold traditional views on HIV treatment. Like actress Lesego Motsepe, who died on Monday, Kananda believes in managing her condition with a holistic, healthy lifestyle.
The 43-year old said it did not matter how long she had been living with HIV, but how she managed her condition.
"I am HIV-positive and in all the years that I have known my status I have never taken ARVs, because those come into play when your CD4 count is lower than 250. In this country, that is the standard that is set."
Commenting on speculation that the late Isidingo actress may have suffered because she chose not to use medication, Kananda said "no one knew her state of being then but herself".
"What Lesego talked about when she had got to a place where she said 'I am not going to take ARVs anymore', many people didn't realise that she had been taking medication and it wasn't treating her well ...
"For me, it is pretentious and hypocritical that people are so eager to say they should have told her to take medication. We were not there when she was struggling with the medication," she said.
"There comes a time when you look at your wellbeing and look at what's best for you at the time."
Kananda had harsh words for the entertainment industry in which Motsepe worked.
"We all know that popping a pill is not going to pay the bills ... Where are the companies that should have given her work when she needed work?
"When she announced she was HIV-positive, she still needed to sustain her livelihood. How do we do this when, as artists, we don't even have access to medical aid? And if you don't have work, that means you can't pay for medical aid," she said.
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