UN hails Manto's sidelining
2006-12-09 13:03
Special Report
The South African government has announced a joint venture to reduce the cost of anti-retroviral drugs with a Swiss company.
Paris - United Nations special envoy Stephen Lewis says South Africa has made "a breakthrough" on Aids after sidelining controversial health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and unveiling a new programme for helping people with HIV.
In an interview with AFP, Lewis - one of the fiercest critics of South Africa's Aids policies - said he was encouraged by the developments of recent weeks.
"I do think there has been a breakthrough, I don't think there's any question about that, although it may not be as extensive as we yet want," said Lewis.
"South Africa has turned the corner and the minister of health is still on the side of the street. That's probably appropriate."
South Africa has the second-highest number of HIV-infected people in the world.
President Thabo Mbeki and his ministers have been under fire for pronouncements that have doubted the clinical causes of Aids, for delays in rolling out anti-retroviral drugs and for encouraging a diet claimed to be able to combat the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
TAC supports plan
Lewis said he was encouraged by a new draft plan, unveiled by South Africa on World Aids Day on December 1, aimed at halving the number of people infected with the Aids virus within five years.
It also pledges to provide treatment, care and support to 80% of people living with HIV/Aids and their families.
Lewis said it was "a little disquieting" that the treatment target for 2011 "is still much below what will be required by that time".
But he said he had no quarrel with the plan's effort to encourage young people to delay the onset of their sexual life in order to reduce the number of teen infections.
Encouraging abstinence in this way is "a very legitimate and useful proposition... to the extent that kids can be persuaded", said Lewis.
He added that he was also "very much cheered" by the positive response of grass-roots groups like the Treatment Action Campaign to the plan.
No mention of Manto's diet
According to government figures for September, 213 000 infected people benefit from a government-funded ARV plan, and 11 000 more join each month.
The draft scheme makes no mention of the disputed diet espoused by Tshabalala-Msimang, who contends that eating a mixture of garlic and vegetables can fight HIV.
Scientists say the diet is worthless, while campaigners say it may delude HIV-infected poor people into believing there is a cheap fix for infection.
Lewis is famous for his unvarnished speech.
He put South Africa to the sword at the International Aids Conference in Toronto in August, blasting Pretoria for theories "more worthy of a lunatic fringe than of a concerned and compassionate state" and doubting whether its government could ever "achieve redemption".
Tshabalala-Msimang's lead role in South Africa's Aids programme now appears to have been taken over by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, said Lewis.
- AFP