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Mbeki glosses over Aids issue
17/12/2002 21:46 - (SA)
Stellenbosch - President Thabo Mbeki on Tuesday tried to deflect criticism of his fleeting reference to Aids in his presidential report to the African National Congress, by saying it would be adequately dealt with in a party resolution.
"There's a very long resolution on the matter," the president told a press conference in Stellenbosch.
Mbeki said he was sure the ANC would pay the necessary attention to the pandemic.
A report to the conference by ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe had highlighted that one of the party's major campaigns over the past five years had been devoted to the issue.
"Of all the campaigns that we decided upon, that is one on which the structures of the ANC concentrated."
Mbeki said there were many issues and that it was impossible to spell out these in great length in his report.
Tuberculosis was a very big problem in the country.
The World Health Organisation had drawn the government's attention to the fact that South Africa was the ninth worst country in the world in relation to the incidence of TB.
"But we didn't devote a page to TB," Mbeki said, adding he had delivered a political report.
"Look at the resolutions of the ANC, the matter will be adequately dealt with."
In the few minutes that it took the president to reply to the question, he did not mention the phrase HIV or Aids.
Mbeki has repeatedly been criticised for his apparent unorthodox views on HIV and Aids.
- SAPA
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HIV/Aids Special Report
