The AIDS conference in Toronto has ended but the fight between HIV/AIDS activist-NGO Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and the minister of health is still raging on. South Africa’s media, from TV to print, has lapped up the fray with enthusiasm. Some political parties have also entered the fracas, echoing the TAC’s call to sack Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. These include the Democratic Alliance, the Freedom Front Plus, the United Democratic Movement, the African Christian Democratic Party, the National Democratic Convention and the Independent Democrats.

In a twist, during a special address to the Cape Town City Council at the invitation of Mayor Helen Zille, TAC Chairperson Zackie Achmat has appealed to the African National Congress to help him oust Tshabalala-Msimang. Achmat is asking President Thabo Mbeki to convene a national crisis meeting to develop a plan to deal with HIV/AIDS issues. Sapa quoted Achmat cajoling:

“We cannot put our party obedience, comrades, before the right to life.”

At the start of his address, Achmat, wearing his trademark “HIV-positive” T-shirt, pointedly stressed his “lifelong” ANC membership, adding that if he had been a member of the council, he would be sitting in the ANC benches.

This follows the United Nations’ (UN) African representatives’ lambasting at the conference of South Africa’s policies surrounding HIV/AIDS.

Despite all this, the health minister says she’s going nowhere. I watched her confidently fielding questions from SABC1’s Asikhulume talk show host Xolani Gwala, and felt a twinge of pity for those who will continue to butt their heads against this wall. Similarly, the Mail&Guardian ran bills calling Tshabalala-Msimang our “teflon minister”. All to no avail – she apparently did not even blink.
 
Since the conference, the TAC’s members have been arrested for public disturbance after their “Arrest Manto” protest. Not daunted, they staged worldwide demonstrations carrying banners that blazed “Manto, You’re Fired”.

As always, our president – a connoisseur in ignoring public outrage and acting only when it suits him – is keeping his counsel and saying nothing at all.
 
That we should continue to question Mbeki’s reticence as far as HIV/AIDS issues are concerned seems as pointless as telling Tshabalala-Msimang to quit.

As Independent Democrats Leader, Patricia De Lille, was quoted as saying in an article carried on IOL:

“The longer the president remains silent, the louder the international condemnation of our country’s Aids policies will become, with many wondering what Mbeki’s own views on prevention and treatment of HIV/Aids are.”

However, it is good to know that his deputy, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, is not following in his footsteps. Mlambo-Ngcuka reprimanded Tshabalala-Msimang for “not opening up the lines of communications”. This was after 16 members of the National Association of People with AIDS went on a hunger strike hoping that Mlambo-Ngcuka’s office would address their grievances. They are requesting a comprehensive nutritional plan that will help fight HIV/AIDS. The Citizen reported:

“The Deputy President apparently took up this matter with Tshabalala-Msimang, saying the lines of communication between the Minister and all concerned in the fight against HIV/Aids needed to be opened up.”

It’s refreshing to see a politician from Tshabalala-Msimang’s own party not siding with her. It will be interesting now to see whether the Cape Town City Council takes a decision to support Achmat in his call for her fall or not. – Itumeleng Makgobathe

Read Zackie Achmat’s speech to the Cape Town City Council here.

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