There is no Aids agreement - Mbeki
2003-02-16 22:32
Special Report
The South African government has announced a joint venture to reduce the cost of anti-retroviral drugs with a Swiss company.
Pretoria - President Thabo Mbeki denied on Sunday that government was backtracking on a framework agreement it reached with labour and business on a plan to treat people with HIV/Aids.
"Discussions are going on about this. There is no agreement that the government is not signing," the president said in an interview with the SABC.
"There is a continuing process of discussion about this. Where the idea came from that there is an agreement ready to be signed, I don't know."
SABC television news reported that the president conceded the government could improve the way it communicated its position on the treatment of Aids.
The Congress of SA Trade Unions and the Aids lobby group the Treatment Action Campaign have accused the government of holding up the signing of a framework agreement on the treatment and prevention of HIV and Aids.
They said the deal was drafted by a task team representing the government, labour and business in the National Economic Development and Labour Council - but has so far been signed only by labour and community representatives.
Mbeki has been criticised for "neglecting" the topic of Aids in his State of the Nation address to parliament on Friday.
On the same day, thousands of Aids activists, trade unionists, religious leaders and members of the public marched on parliament to urge the government to put in place a national Aids treatment plan.
Wouter Basson not heading for Iraq
In Sunday's interview, the president also refuted suggestions that he could include apartheid chemical warfare expert Wouter Basson in a South African team of experts due to advise Iraq on disarmament.
Mbeki announced on Friday such a team would soon fly to Iraq to share with that country the experience of South Africa's voluntary disarmament programme - which he said was widely regarded as an example of international best practice.
"Certainly in the group I met last week, he (Basson) wasn't there," Mbeki told the SABC.
Turning to the situation in Zimbabwe - another topic he was accused of neglecting on Friday, Mbeki reiterated there would be no interference on the matter of that country's political leadership.
"We are not going to be going around the African continent removing governments.
"The matter of who governs Zimbabwe, is a matter that is in the hands of the people of Zimbabwe. The matter of who governs the people of South Africa is in the hands of the people of South Africa.
"But that is the problem. The problem is not lack of understanding of what we are saying and doing - the problem is difference of opinion about what to do."
- SAPA