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Death and a Funeral

By Melissa Meyer

The newly appointed Minister of Home Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s public grieving over the suicide of a young man who took his own life after the Department of Home Affairs refused to issue him with an ID, has made for truly moving copy this week.

But there is something disconcerting about this ministerial display of empathy. If only Dlamini-Zuma had been this moved by the deaths of the some 180 000 South Africans who perished from AIDS-related illnesses during her tenure as Health Minister, the South African epidemic may have taken a much less dramatic toll.

All quiet on the Aids front…

By Matthew van Onselen

The combination of the quiet festive period and the focus on the ANC’s party conference at Polokwane has meant that there has been scant focus on the AIDS question and the issues that surround it. This is disappointing to report, since the drop in AIDS reports seems to have started directly after World AIDS Day, on December 1st, on which the AIDS benefit concert – the Nelson Mandela 46664 concert – was held.

Manto backtracks on beetroot while Zuma preaches morals

It seems Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang is not as impervious to public ridicule and pressure as she would have us believe. It appears she has denounced her famous diet alternative to anti-retroviral treatment. On 26 September, Sapa reported her as telling reporters at a media briefing:

Call for Manto’s fall keeps media hopping

The AIDS conference in Toronto has ended but the fight between HIV/AIDS activist-NGO Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and the minister of health is still raging on. South Africa’s media, from TV to print, has lapped up the fray with enthusiasm. Some political parties have also entered the fracas, echoing the TAC’s call to sack Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. These include the Democratic Alliance, the Freedom Front Plus, the United Democratic Movement, the African Christian Democratic Party, the National Democratic Convention and the Independent Democrats.

AIDS conference roundup

Thousands of delegates and journalists from across the globe converged in Toronto for the 16th International AIDS Conference this week to once again thrash out solutions to the AIDS pandemic that has the world firmly in its grip.