Nozipho Bhengu

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Nozipho Bhengu (1974-19 May 2006) was a South African woman whose death from an AIDS-related illness intensified the controversy about how AIDS is treated in South Africa.

She was well known in South Africa for her openness about her illness as well as her refusal to take conventional medical treatment for AIDS in favour of alternative "natural" treatment. She had been on antiretroviral drugs, but in 2001 was persuaded by health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang that such drugs have dangerous side effects and it was better to try a healthy diet. Manto said "I do not know of any side effects of eating proper food". Miss Bhengu's mother, an African National Congress legislator, talked about her in a speech in Parliament, after which her efforts to treat her illness became common knowledge in South Africa.

She started writing a book called From Victim to Victor, leaving two chapters unwritten at her death. When she died, Treatment Action Campaign, prominent AIDS advocacy group in South Africa, praised her openness about her illness while at the same time calling her death "unnecessary".

Manto was invited to her funeral on 24 May. She had a prior engagement. Her stand-in was booed off the podium.