A MATTER OF HEALTH

Peter Mokaba	Parks Mankahlana

"Peter Mokaba, Youth Leader of the ANC, died because of Aids, but nodbody was willing to speak about it in public - there were only rumours which were vehemently denied. Parks Mankahlana died bcause of Aids, but he was forced to deny it whilst he was dying ... just think of the pain which this stigma must have caused him. Thema Khoza, youth leader of the IFP, also died because of Aids," Achmat said.
Achmat added that the culture of denial by Mbeki and his inner circle contributed to the high incidence of HIV/Aids in South Africa.

South Africa's top  AIDS researchers were snubbed by Pres Thabo Mbeki in April 2000  in his selection (on the advice of Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang) of a "distinguished panel" to advise him  on AIDS issues. World-acclaimed scientists such as Professor Jerry Coovadia,  chairman of the 13th International AIDS Conference, Dr Malegapuru Makgoba, president of the Medical Research Council, virologist Prof Estrelita van Rensburg from the University of Stellenbosch, and Professor Salim Abdool Karim, director of the council's HIV prevention and vaccine research, have been excluded from the panel.
The decision to appoint the panel follows Mbeki's engagement in a debate about whether HIV causes AIDS and his personal communication with US-based AIDS dissidents David Rasnick and Peter Duesberg. The panel comprises more than 30 scientists who are evenly split between experts questioning the link between HIV and AIDS and those subscribing to the conventional scientific view that the HIV causes AIDS.
The move has outraged the South African AIDS community and caused concern in the international scientific community. The chairman of the National AIDS Council of South Africa, Dr Ashraf Grimwood, said that the AIDS community was "shocked and horrified" that Mbeki was canvassing the opinions of AIDS dissidents who believe that HIV is a harmless virus and that AIDS is caused by poverty and "diseases of lifestyle". In his opening speech of the 13th World Conference on Aids, AIDS 2000, held in Durban in July 2000, Mbeki refused to admit that HIV causes AIDS, again ascribing it to poverty and (according to the Sunday Times of 2000-07-16) "came perilously close to endorsing the dissident view that AIDS is not caused by the HIV virus, but by environmental factors".
The panel's final report, costing R2 million, was not signed by the dissident members and the panel disintegrated before the conclusion of its investigation, citing "unsurmountable differences in opinion".
Dr Ruth Nduati, a University of Nairobi scientist who is involved in  groundbreaking research into the prevention of mother-to-child HIV  transmission, said: "Encouragement of dissident views by leaders of Mbeki's calibre has the potential of creating doubt and undoing strategies to prevent the spread of the disease. Mbeki's discussion with dissidents who say this is a harmless virus could even make people stop using condoms.
"Leaders should be careful about who they stand up for and support. People on our continent are more likely to believe Mbeki  than all our top scientists."
Leader of the Opposition Tony Leon told a public meeting in KwaZulu-Natal that Mbeki "is suffering from a near obsession with finding African solutions to every problem, even if that meant flouting scientifc facts about AIDS in favour of snake-oil cures and quackery". He later admitted that the "snake-oil" he was referring to meant Virodene.
South Africa has an estimated 4,5 million HIV/AIDS sufferers -- the highest in the world.

Click on image above for enlarged view.

• Read: All the President's Scientists (Diary of a round-earther) extracts from the detailed diary kept by a member of the Presidential Aids Advisory panel (Mail & Guardian)

DON'T CALL ME MANTO, CALL ME MADAM MINISTER

Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang circulated to all the provincial health ministers and premiers a chapter from a book that claims that the Illuminati - a supposed international conspiracy to ttakke over the world - introduced Aids to Africa in 1978 in an attempt to reduce the African population. The claim appears in a 1991 book called Behold, A Pale Horse by William Cooper, an American conspiracy theorist (who describes himself as "the world's leading expert on UFO's") who also believes the world is secretly being taken over by aliens who flit about in sinister black flying craft developed wit the connivance of the United States government. When questioned about it, Tshabalala-Msimang said "the distribution of the document was part of the 'routine' exchange of information".
Tshabalala-Msimang was interviewed on Radio 702 by talk show host John Robbie early in September 2000 as was asked whether she believed there was a link between HIV and AIDS. She refused to give a straight answer:
"I have answered that question. You will not force me into a corner into whether whether saying 'yes' or 'no'. You will not pressurise me to answer that," (sic) she told Robbie. After that, the interview went downhill, with Robbie criticising Tshabalala-Msimang for evading simple questions about the cruel shambles that is her Government's policy on HIV/Aids, and for lending her voice and professional respectability to a mad fight against best science that is costing thousands of lives, causing unimaginable suffering and wasting the country millions of rands. He criticised her disregard for Aids sufferers that was evident in her failure to defend it.
"I am not Manto to you, I am not your friend" she shouted at Robbie.
Finally Robbie ended the interview, saying: "Go away. I cannot take that rubbish any longer. Can you believe it... I have never in my life heard such rubbish".
The ANC has called on Robbie to resign - or for Radio 702 to sack him, and have pressurised Primeda, 702's owners, to ensure the latter result.
A full transcript of John Robbie's interview with Tshabalala-Msimang is available here.

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A SIMPLE "YES" OR "NO" WOULD BE SUFFICIENT

At a media briefing in September 2000, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, Minister of Health, was asked by a reporter: "Can you tell us, yes or no, whether your government believes HIV causes AIDS?"
"Why," she responded, "do you say 'your' government? Isn't it our government? I think a little patriotism would be good ... I don't want people to put words in my mouth. I have a certain way of answering questions. I am not a baby, a child or a schoolgirl."
Tshabalala-Msimang was honoured as "Mampara of the Week" by the Sunday Times for her reply.

At the opening ceremony of the Aids conference in August 2003, Health Minister Her Highness Manto Tshabalala-Msimang won friends and influenced people in her usual inimitable style. First victim of the ministerial charm was Jerry Coovadia, the chairperson of the conference, whom Queen Manto ignored. Overcoming this slight, Coovadia nevertheless tried to introduce Herself to a number of guest speakers, including dr James McIntyre of the Perinatal Research Institute at Baragwanath Hospital. When McIntyre put out his hand to hers, She Who Must Be Obeyed pulled her hand away, “gave him a look” (as our informant described it) and shook her head. At a dinner later in the week, Coovadia mentioned to guests the minister’s odd behaviour but forgave her childishness.

Just before the13th World Conference on AIDS (see item above), a declaration signed by 5 000 prominent scientists (including 12 Nobel prize winners) from all over the world, stating that HIV has been scientifically proved to be the sole cause of AIDS, was published in the prestigeous journal Nature.  The declaration condemns what the scientists regard as revisionist theories on the cause of AIDS, which they believe has Mbeki's support after he reportedly questioned whether HIV caused AIDS.
Presidential spokesman Parks Mankahlana said that the declaration "belongs in the dustbin".
Mankahlana said: "If the drafters of the declaration expect to give it to the president, or the government, it will find its  comfortable place among the dustbins of the office."
Mankahlana is reported in Nature to have said that children of HIV positive women become orphans, and that the state must then look after them: "That mother is going to die and that HIV negative child will be an orphan - who is going  to bring that child up? It's the state, the state. That's resources you see."
After initially denying the statement and accusing the magazine of lying he went on to say the following... (after SCIENCE had produced a tape recording of his statement):

"I have issued a statement denying what I am alleged to have said. That means I repudiate what I am alleged to have said. WHETHER I HAVE SAID IT OR NOT, it means that statement is considered by me to be wrong or unacceptable. That should then settle the matter."

The (then) Minister of Health, Nkosazana Zuma, (then) wife of ANC National Chairman Jacob Zuma, phoned her friend, playwright Mbongeni Ngema, in January 1995 to inquire about the cost of a musical production to promote an awareness for Aids. Negema's off the cuff estimate was R800 000.
Tenders are "invited" from Ngema, his associate company Opera Africa, and the Windybrow Centre.
It is announced that Ngema's company Committed Artists was awarded the tender for a total of R14 247 600. The premiére for Sarafina 2 was staged in Durban on World Aids Day, December 1st, 1995.
Health workers slam the play. "It's millions of rands worth pelvic thrusts by middle aged overweight girls posing in gymslips as school pupils". "It has little more to say about the HIV virus than it's great fun to sleep with lots of partners and then you get Aids and then you die and go to heaven".
Ngema received R9 million: R500 000 for himself and the remainder spent on preparing to take the production on the road. A luxury bus is bought for R1,1 million. The luxury bus is later attached when repair bills were not paid by Committed Artists.
"I should be earning at least R1 million", Ngema says. "But does any director in this country earn those figures? I don't think you can compare me to anyone in this country".
AIDS directorate head Quarraisha Abdool Karim announces that the European Union has put up the money for the play.  She claimed that the money for the project was sanctioned by the European Union. On February 28th 1996, Zuma tells the National Assembly Health Copmmittee there are no irregularities: the European Union knew how its money was being spent.
The National Assembly approves Zuma's actions by 154 votes to 74.
Erwan Fouere, EU ambassador, denies that the EU has authorised funds to finance the play. A preliminary health department audit fails to account for more than R1 million. A month later, the EU asks for its money back.
On March 1st, 1996, Mandela adds his support to Zuma and the project. Thabo Mbeki says there has been no misuse of public funds.
Min Zuma agrees to cancel the contract and recoup lost funds. She announces that unkown benefactors - a group of businessmen who have formed aa ttrust - have pledged to provide the then outstanding R10,5 million owing on the project. By July, the benefactor has become one person; by August, a white businessman.
Mr Mbongeni Ngema, producer of Sarafina 2, was evicted from his offices in Durban as a result of rental arrears amounting to R25 782 on August 27th, 1996, the same day that Pres Nelson Mandela stated that "Dr Nkosazana Zuma, the Minister for Health, is a very good minister. Allow her to do her good work". The rental was supposed to be included in the R14,5 million tender awarded to Ngema to produce Sarafina 2.
Three days later the Auditor-General, Mr Henri Kluever, announced that he could find no evidence about the donation of the promised R10,5 million by the unknown private donor.
By August 1996 it was reported in Parliament that Sarafina 2 was seen by 39 000 people at a cost of R100 per head. "With that money they could have hired Pavarotti or Michael Jackson", the Sunday Times reported.
The Public Protector, Selby Baqwa, got Minister Zuma so far as to inform him of the name of the unknown donor, but refused to make it public "because the donor's business has nothing to do with health, health products or anything that could logically connect it with the Department of Health". At the same time, the Auditor General Henri Kluever, announced that if the donor pays in the money, he would have to audit the amount and will make the name of the donor public. "I can see no reason why the donor's name must be kept secret".
On September 11th, 1996 Pres Mandela announced that the secret donor had withdrawn his offer to donate R10,5 million for the project. "There is no element of scandal in the way Dr Nkosazana Zuma conducts her portfolio", the president said.
Min Zuma told a press conference on the same day that the R10,5 million would be regarded as "an unauthorised expenditure to be dealt with in the normal way". She could not explain how Parliament could write off the amount, and referred all questions to her department.
Primary among the reasons for the donor's withdrawal had been "the campaign by the media and opposition parties that left him in no doubt about his right to privacy". She herself "had not done anything wrong".
Pres Mandela criticized the mass media and said they "should not create a crisis where there is no crisis".
Asked if he had any regrets about accepting government money for Sarafina 2, Negema responded: "At first I did, but ... my attitude changed. I began to look at it with a political eye.... Although South Africa has changed, people have not changed, most of the people in the white press are either DP or NP. They are the same people who, if given the chance, will hit back at any black person who is trying to come out of the water".

THE RIGHT MEDICINE

"My best coping strategy was to return to my roots, my identity and my culture....
"Being a Northern Province citizen it was quite natural for me to consult bomatwetwe (traditional healers).... I had to worship the African gods and ancestors in my daily activities. I had to go through all my African rituals again in order to stay focused and at peace with myself. In the process I forgot my recently acquired western civilisation...
"My parents were so concerned that they went separately to consult traditional doctors. They were both given the same diagnosis: 'This is white man's jealousy and racism, your son will come through'. They were also given two types of medicine for me: one to use when I washed my face, the other to chew when I opened a letter from my enemies. This was the one my maternal grandfather always recommended.
"The first was to keep the enemy dead scared when he looked at me: the second was to spray and chant insulting poetry on to the letters, so their contents did not terrify or bother my psyche.
"My father, who is generally very diplomatic, brought the remedies to me. I remembered when I left for Oxford in 1979, he had given me what he described as "lion's fat" to smear on my face. This would make any person fear me.
"I had tried it as Oxford and it worked miracles. In this instance, I assured him of my co-operation and I used the medicines as instructed".
- Prof William Makgoba, in his book "Mokoko - The Makgoba Affair", written after 13 academics from Wits University accused him of falsifying his CV and was relieved of his position as Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Wits. After a stint as president of the Medical Research Council, he was appointed Vice-Chancellor of Natal University in Durban, where he became embroiled in a bitter competition with the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Durban-Westville (UDW), dr Saths Cooper during August 2003 over the position of Vice-Chancellor when the two universities were told to unite. In a taped telephone conversation with suspended UDW professor Anand Singh, Makgoba described Cooper as "a cheat" and someone "who  has no academic track record. He has never done anything of substance in the last 10 years that you can say he has been successful at doing". He said it was "a matter of public record" that Cooper had cheated when he was a student.

HOME ENTERTAINMENT

Dr Nkosazana Zuma, (then) Minister of Health, explained the increase in the Aids epidemic: "Sex is entertainment for the poor because they have nothing else to do when other people go to a cinema or swimming pool".

From a leaflet published by the Department of National Health and Population Development in 1997: "There are no obvious signs a person has the Aids germ [sic]. They may look perfectly normal and healthy. It may take many years before an infected person becomes seriously ill and dies. Only then does the person look very ill".
So now we know.

• "Dr" Nokasazana Zuma's list of medical terms
• HIV and Aids: myths
• Witches, sangomas and muti
• Virginity tests