CAPE TOWN — AIDS activists on Friday celebrated the removal of South Africa's health minister, accused of causing countless unnecessary deaths by promoting nutritional supplements instead of conventional medicine for people with HIV.
New President Kgalema Motlanthe, within hours of taking office Thursday, won instant praise by announcing that Manto Tshabalala-Msimang would be removed as health minister.
Activists accused Tshabalala-Msimang of spreading confusion about AIDS by saying she did not trust antiretroviral medicines and preferred nutritional remedies such as garlic, beetroot, lemon, olive oil and the African potato.
"Tens of thousands of South Africans have lost their lives because of her ridiculous policies on HIV/AIDS, and she should have been fired nine years ago," the opposition Democratic Alliance said.
Tshabalala-Msimang's removal suggested a stark shift in South Africa's AIDS policy and was seen as a sign that Motlanthe would pursue his own course, despite promises he would not substantially change ousted President Thabo Mbeki's economic policies.
Anit-apartheid veteran Barbara Hogan, who had criticized former President Thabo Mbeki's for not firing Tshabalala-Msimang, will be sworn in as health minister along with other new Cabinet appointees on Friday.
"Over 2 million South Africans died of AIDS during the presidency of Thabo Mbeki. At least 300,000 deaths could have been avoided," a representative of the Treatment Action Campaign said. "Mbeki and his health minister pursued a policy of politically supported AIDS denialism and undermined the scientific governance of medicine."
Mbeki was notorious for his denial that HIV caused AIDS and his refusal to accept the scale of the epidemic.
[AIDSPortal summary]
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News Date:
27 September 2008
Contributed On:
29 September 2008