Quote:
Originally Posted by _Richard_
not sure about all this speculation, but i believe that TAC was supporting Mbeki because Mbeki apparently believed they should be producing medicine locally, rather than accepting failed AIDS medication from companies with some serious issues
i believe there even was a multinational lawsuit, fought by big pharmacy, against him to try and stop him from doing this. Now these are facts, so i think your caricature that this guy doesn't even believe in the disease is a little strange, and possibly echos of a smear campaign if you're reading british news about S.A. government. am i speculating now? dammit
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I can find you lots of local South African sources if you want. The article in the Guardian was the first that popped up on Google, but there are lots more. Mbeki was criticized even more in South Africa than he was internationally. And that was across the board, even within his own party and other activist groups.
Even if you take AIDS denialism out of the picture, Mbeki & the health minister at the time were making statements like it was pointless providing drug treatment because poor people couldn't be relied upon to be compliant. This is an example of class discrimination and wasn't true. There was lots of research done on community workers who worked with people in the townships who had T.B and they DID take their medication and their health improved.
The multinational lawsuit with the drug companies is a separate issue. I agree that the big pharmaceutical companies aren't motivated by goodwill. They are driven by profit and do awful things like block local production of medication, and spend research money on drugs that will earn them money. So other diseases go untreated in the developing world because they know they won't make their money there. So the T.A.C worked with Mbeki in that case.
But Mbeki still believed HIV/AIDS wasn't real and that the symptoms were caused by poverty. His health minister come up with some public health awareness program telling people to consume olive oil and African potatoes to boost their immune systems so they wouldn't exhibit 'AIDS like' symptoms. It was ridiculous. HIV/AIDS is no longer a death sentence in the developed world because of the medication. They didn't even want the medication when it was offered for free.
Here are some links:
http://www.timeslive.co.za/news/article172702.ece
"The Treatment Action Campaign, which fought for government provision of antiretroviral drugs and was at loggerheads with Mbeki and Tshabalala-Msimang because of their denialist views, hailed Zuma's speech as a "breath of fresh air".
"This is a sign of political will in this administration to fight the epidemic as well as TB," said TAC general secretary Vuyiseka Dubula
"We have lacked this level of leadership on Aids and TB from the government for 15 years."
Mbeki's mistake. source: nature.com
Mbeki dismissed the deputy health minister because she opposed his strategies and wasn't an HIV/AIDS denialist.
Crimes of the great denialist source: Mail & Guardian South Africa. Mbeki was actually impeached partly due to his failure to address the HIV/AIDs crisis.
TONS of articles from the TAC the impact of AIDS denialism in South Africa and Mbeki role in the deaths of many South Africans. They call his policies an example of 'health apartheid'