Khopotso Mangoenyane Bodibe, or Khops, as he was known, was one-in-a-million. The tributes posted below recall his humanity, his love, his compassion, his big booming laugh and the incredibly important work he not only did as a journalist, but as a social justice journalist at the height of South Africa’s heartbreaking and deadly HIV denialism years.
Week after week, Khops would produce his “Living with HIV” package which was broadcast in more than one language on SABC radio stations and community radio. It was groundbreaking work.
Khops was a colleague and friend; we drove thousands of kilometres to report on the HIV epidemic in our country, slept in many dodgy places, shared many meals and discussed everything from life to love to safe sex to cooking a pig’s head. His social media pages reveal how he urged people to mask up, get the vaccine and not to listen to the denialists.