[DEBATE] : Fwd: NPR: AIDS Crisis Politicized in South Africa as Graves Fill

[Sean Jacobs]

> From: "Dan Moshenberg" <dmoshenberg at gmail.com>
> Date: September 19, 2007 8:29:26 AM EDT
> Subject: NPR: AIDS Crisis Politicized in South Africa as Graves Fill
>
>
> AIDS Crisis Politicized in South Africa as Graves Fill
>
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>  by Gwen Thompkins?
> ?
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> Rodger Bosch
>
> Members of the Treatment Action Campaign, led by Zackie Achmat, 
> protest in Cape Town in late August against the firing of Deputy 
> Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge. AFP/Getty Images
> ?
> ?
> ?
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> Enlarge
> Rodger Bosch
>
> Treatment Action Campaign members rally in support of Nozizwe 
> Madlala-Routledge, the former deputy health minister. The group is 
> calling for the country's health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, 
> to be fired. AFP/Getty Images
> ?
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> Enlarge
> Gianluigi Guercia
>
> Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge (left), South Africa's former deputy health 
> minister, sings and dances with TAC activists in Cape Town just a few 
> days after being fired in August. AFP/Getty Images
> ?
> ?
>
> Morning Edition, September 19, 2007 ? In South Africa, the ruling 
> African National Congress party is expected to consider its next 
> leader in December. Much hangs on the decision. The ANC dominates 
> parliament, and a new party chief will likely be South Africa's next 
> president.
>
> As the decision approaches, the issue of HIV/AIDS, a catastrophic 
> public health problem that will continue to challenge South Africa's 
> leadership, has become dangerously politicized.
>
> A visit to the Avalon Cemetery in Soweto illustrates the crisis. On a 
> recent Saturday morning, the cemetery is noisy and crowded bumper to 
> bumper with buses, BMWs and even a bicycle. In the cold, flat field 
> outside Johannesburg, there are three funerals going on at the same 
> time.
>
> The Avalon is where the people of Soweto buried many of their 
> political heroes, the ordinary men and women who stood up to, and were 
> cut down by, the hard reality of apartheid. But these days, people in 
> Soweto are burying those who have fallen to a different reality ? 
> AIDS. There are scores of fresh graves in the dead yellow grass.
>
> "It's a chaos," says Father Benedict Mahlangu, who presides at St. 
> Margaret Catholic Church in Diphloof, Soweto. "[There is] no more 
> respect as before. We're just putting a person in the hole and we just 
> go home."
>
> Mahlangu's flock is dying. Some Saturdays, he says, he buries as many 
> as four members of the congregation, and there are more funerals 
> during the week. He blames AIDS for many of the deaths, but few of the 
> families do so publicly. The stigma is still too strong.
>
> "They won't tell you it's HIV. They won't just be open and say that. 
> Mostly, they'll say it's pneumonia or cancer. But you know ... it is 
> not the truth," he says. "Because it's unusual every week burying 
> young people suffering from cancer or pneumonia."
>
> Government's Disease-Fighting Record Inconsistent
>
> South Africa has the highest number of people infected with HIV in the 
> world. Health advocates estimate that nearly 1,000 South Africans die 
> from AIDS-related illnesses every day and 500 to 1,000 more are newly 
> infected with HIV. However, the government's record on fighting 
> HIV/AIDS has been dangerously inconsistent.
>
> "People are dying completely, completely unnecessarily," says Kerry 
> Cullinan, who manages Health-e, a South African news agency that 
> covers government policy and action on AIDS. "We've got the drugs now. 
> They are cheap. But people are dying and dying and dying, and children 
> are being forced to have lives that are more miserable than they were 
> under apartheid."
>
> Cullinan and others acknowledge that South Africa has made progress on 
> HIV prevention and treatment. South Africa's anti-retroviral program, 
> for instance, provides medication to hundreds of thousands of people. 
> And in March, parliament passed an ambitious plan that sets five-year 
> goals for reducing HIV infections nationwide.
>
> The government has earmarked plenty of money for the plan. But 
> President Thabo Mbeki has a well-publicized suspicion of 
> anti-retroviral treatments. Of late, the government has shown no vigor 
> in trying to meet its goals.
>
> Cullinan says the African National Congress must make HIV prevention 
> and treatment a top priority.
>
> "The ANC has a conference coming up in December," she says. "And there 
> are very clear battle lines drawn between different camps within the 
> ANC. But, for me, what is one of the really sad things is that there's 
> nobody who is brave enough to say, 'We need a massive plan. We want to 
> reach out to every single person who needs treatment.' There's nobody 
> saying those kinds of things."
>
> Activists Campaign Against 'Dr. Beetroot'
>
> Enter Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, South Africa's minister of health. She 
> reportedly shares the president's distrust of anti-retroviral 
> medications and has become public enemy No. 1 among AIDS activists, 
> who refer to her as "Dr. Beetroot" or "Dr. Olive Oil." They accuse her 
> of dragging her feet on drug programs ? including one that would 
> protect babies from contracting HIV from their mothers.
>
> Last year, Tshabalala-Msimang represented South Africa at an 
> international conclave and extolled the power of salad fixings ? 
> beetroot, olive oil and a variety of fruits and vegetables ? to fight 
> the effects of HIV.
>
> "I have seen people take their last bit of money to go and buy a 
> bottle of olive oil. And then drink it, and then get worse diarrhea," 
> says Zackie Achmat, South Africa's most-renowned AIDS activist and the 
> co-founder of an organization called the Treatment Action Campaign. 
> The group has successfully sued the government more than once to set 
> anti-retroviral drug programs in motion. It is now calling for the 
> health minister to be fired.
>
> "You cannot in South Africa today refuse to implement policies which 
> are going to save lives today. And that's criminal," he says. "I want 
> to see her well and healthy and in jail."
>
> Advocates are so angry because, for a brief period earlier this year, 
> things seemed to be going their way. Tshabalala-Msimang was sidelined 
> by a liver transplant, and her deputy, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, 
> appeared to put AIDS at the top of the ministry's agenda.
>
> For the first time in a long time, the nation saw a unified effort 
> between the ANC-led government and health care activists to do 
> something about AIDS. But last month, the deputy was fired. Mbeki said 
> she was not a team player.
>
> Neither the health minister nor her former deputy responded to 
> requests for an interview.
>
> The resulting controversy has had a polarizing effect across the 
> country and even prompted a walkout of opposition lawmakers in 
> parliament.
>
> "It's just a moral failure on the part of Mbeki," says Xolela Mangcu, 
> a political newspaper columnist in Johannesburg and a research fellow 
> at Witwatersrand University. "It's the most glaring challenge of our 
> time, and whoever comes after him has to put this thing on the 
> agenda."
>
> National unease on the topic of AIDS predates Mbeki's presidency. Even 
> Nelson Mandela has reportedly said privately that he wishes he had 
> done more to combat the disease. But it is widely believed that Mbeki, 
> more than any other individual, will be judged by what South Africa 
> has failed to about AIDS, even as the graveyards fill.
>