JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — As South Africa ramps up a high-profile campaign to test 15 million people for HIV in the next year, experts are questioning whether the country’s struggling health care system can support this massive new undertaking. The world’s most ambitious HIV testing campaign is appropriate for South Africa as it has more people with the AIDS virus than any other country. But until recently South Africa's fight against the disease was held back by the denialist policies of the government of former president Thabo Mbeki.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — South Africa's "black diamonds" are the upwardly mobile blacks who are overcoming decades of apartheid oppression to join the ranks of the country's middle class.

SOWETO, South Africa — When Mduduzi Maphindikazi Mathe took charge of Bhukulani Secondary School in Soweto, the sprawling township south of Johannesburg, the dilapidated school was on the verge of being shut down. The buildings had no window panes or doors, and the classrooms were sparsely equipped with broken chalkboards and too few desks. “It was terrible,” said Mathe. “This school was a mess.”