Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - May 3, 2002
Jaspreet Kindra
Party sources said Tshabalala- Msimang is being targeted as the cause of the "miscommunication" on Aids policy. However, sources sympathetic to the health minister insist she was acting on what she thought was the official stance of party leaders.
Aids dissident Peter Mokaba's alleged influence over Tshabalala-Msimang is apparently being discussed in ANC circles.
Senior party members are understood to have told the ANC's health committee that the minister failed to communicate the committee's advice to the president. The committee has been consistently critical of the party's posture on HIV/Aids and called for debate on the issue.
Another party source said ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama this week contacted health committee secretary Dr Saadiq Kariem to commend the committee on its critical stance. Sources also said that the ANC secretariat was now trying to set up a direct link between the committee and the presidency.
Close party observers say the two major players instrumental in the government's dramatic about-turn on Aids policy were the minister in the presidency, Essop Pahad, and the government communications chief Joel Netshitenzhe, who was recently elevated to head the presidency's policy coordination and advisory unit.
Pahad is understood to have opened up the channel between the party's health committee and the presidency. He has since been deployed to the SA National Aids Council to keep an eye on the communication process.
Netshitenzhe is believed to have taken the lead in shifting the stance on Aids at the party's national executive committee in March. The extent of the shift was masked by attempts to accommodate the dissidents, resulting in a confused resolution.
The resolution announced that the government would consider rolling out the distribution of nevirapine to HIV-positive pregnant women in December this year, but also raised questions about the drug's efficacy.
The committee meeting was followed by a process to fine tune the new Aids stance, resulting in the public policy shift two weeks later. This has been followed by a charm offensive aimed at repositioning the president, consisting of a series of interviews and write-ups involving selected newspaper editors.
In a bid to keep a rein on the communication process, ministers are being dispatched to provinces to brief them on the cabinet position.
Sources close to Mbeki's inner circle say that at the height of the HIV/Aids controversy, Tshabalala-Msimang failed to give Mbeki "proper feedback" on her department's programmes and position. "Her job should have been to engage the president and not feed him with information that she thought he wanted to hear," said a source close to Mbeki's inner circle.
Former president Nelson Mandela reportedly voiced concern over the lack of debate in the Cabinet at a meeting with party office-bearers in February.
Part of Mbeki's inner circle's ire resulted from the stance taken by Tshabalala-Msimang over the Gauteng government's announcement of a comprehensive roll-out of drugs for HIV-infected pregnant women in the province.
Tshabalala-Msimang's move to distance herself from the announcement, while accusing Gauteng of breach of protocol, had caused the government "considerable embarrassment. She apparently acted against the advice of members of the party's health sector," said a source.
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