'Fire Manto' campaign slammed

2003-07-02 20:43

Johannesburg - The Democratic Alliance's campaign to get Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang fired was "cheap political scoring by a frantic political party," the National Association of People Living with HIV/Aids (Napwa) said on Tuesday.

Napwa was responding to the DA's internet campaign to have Tshabalala-Msimang removed from office. It has opened a website on the internet where people can vote whether the minister should be fired or not.

"Napwa sees the call for the sacking of our national health minister as baseless and a cheap political point scoring activity by the DA.

"We call on all HIV/Aids service organisations and people living with HIV/Aids to distance themselves from this low campaign," Napwa said in a statement.

The issues cited by the DA as reasons in their 31 page document in their website were "petty and insignificant" and were not the slightest consideration for firing the minister, Napwa said.

In 2000, Napwa said it marched to the DA offices in Port Elizabeth as a way of appreciating and responding to their promises that it would offer anti-retroviral treatment to people living with HIV/Aids.

"The DA treated us shabbily and it turned out that they were playing politics. Once beaten twice shy.

"Never again shall we be fooled by people who do not seem to appreciate the hardships and burden millions of South Africans undergo - poverty, unemployment, poor access to medicines and medical centres," the organisation said.

Meanwhile Napwa said it would continue with legal demonstrations outside pharmaceutical companies until the companies work out a positive way of assisting the poor in the alleviation of HIV/Aids.

- SAPA