Behind Mbeki's sacking of South Africa's deputy health minister

Referring to Mbeki’s notorious support for the small but vocal group of dissidents who deny that the HIV retrovirus causes AIDS, they added, “It indicates that the president still remains opposed to the science of HIV and to appropriately responding to the epidemic.”

Typical of the response in the Western press was the editorial in the New York Times, August 14, “Unlike other African countries, South Africa has the financial resources and the medical talent to successfully take on its HIV/AIDS epidemic. What it lacks is a president who cares enough about his people’s suffering to provide serious leadership.”

Madlala-Routledge came to the fore in the latter half of last year when the health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, took sick leave to undergo a liver transplant operation. Tshabalala-Msimang shares Mbeki’s attitude to antiretroviral (ARV) drugs and is notorious for promoting health foods, not in addition to ARV drugs but as an alternative—she has become known as “Dr. Beetroot.”