JOHANNESBURG, 10 August: South African deputy health minister, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, said Friday in Cape Town that President Thabo Mbeki sacked her for “just doing my job.”
Madlala-Routledge was appointed deputy minister in 2004, but it soon became apparent that her views on HIV/AIDS were at odds with both Mbeki and his health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who promotes garlic (hvidløg) and lemon juice as a panacea (patentløsning) for symptoms of the the disease, which according to the latest government survey has infected 5,41 million South Africans.
During her tenure as deputy minister Madlala-Routledge sought to mend fences between the government and AIDS activists, shepherding through a comprehensive five-year HIV/AIDS plan that was seen as instrumental in changing perceptions about South Africas controversial response to the pandemic.
Former UN secretary-generals special envoy for AIDS in Africa, Stephen Lewis, said Friday that Madlala-Routledges firing “was a dreadful setback in the struggle against the pandemic, a blow to those fighting it internally and a blow to those outside watching developments in South Africa. The government of South Africa seems determined to discredit itself in the eyes of the world”.
– Everyone will be shocked by what has happened. We assumed that the turnaround experienced in 2006 signified a real change in heart but obviously with the reemergence of the health minister Tshabalala-Msimang it means we are going in reverse again, noted Lewis.
Kilde: FN-bureauet IRINnews
