Integrated Regional Information Networks - September 21, 2000

Speaking in parliament on Wednesday Mbeki said that while the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) could be one of the contributory factors in causing AIDS, it could not actually cause the syndrome itself. "A virus cannot cause a syndrome. A virus can cause a disease and AIDS is not a disease it is a syndrome," he told parliamentarians. He said that while he could accept that HIV contributed to the collapse of the immune system, other factors like poverty and poor nutrition were also involved.

Church enters the AIDS debate

Meanwhile, the Anglican Church in South Africa this week entered the AIDS debate saying that the South African government would be judged by its inaction over AIDS as a crime against humanity. In a strongly worded statement, the head of the Anglican Church in South Africa, Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane said: "We believe that history will measure this country's slow response to the pandemic in human, not statistical terms, and that the inherent injustices will be judged as serious a crime against humanity as apartheid."

"What is becoming increasingly clear is the futility of looking to government for a solution. At the very least we need to apply pressure on our political leaders to change this situation," Ndungane said. "We need an urgent strategic planning meeting of all interested parties so as to develop a plan of action and we need to move fast." Earlier this week the country's largest trade union, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) said that it urged Mbeki to back down on his controversial stand on HIV/AIDS.

"The current public debate on the causal link between HIV and AIDS is confusing. For COSATU, the link between HIV and AIDS is irrefutable and any other approach is unscientific and unfortunately likely to confuse people," Willie Madisha, the COSATU leader said.

HRC considers legal action over AIDS drugs

The Human Rights Commission (HRC) said on Wednesday that it was considering legal action to determine whether the state should provide drugs to people who suffer from HIV/AIDS. Addressing parliament HRC chairman, Barney Pityana, said that the HRC was investigating a number of complaints by HIV/AIDS sufferers who said that they had a constitutional right to be provided with potentially life-saving drugs.

In his speech to parliament, President Thabo Mbeki defended the government's refusal so far as to provide anti-retroviral drugs to people living with HIV/AIDS. He said that the government was investigating the two main anti-retroviral drugs, AZT and Nevirapine. Mbeki said that although trials had shown that Nevirapine was safer and more cost-effective than AZT, no country in the world had yet approved Nevirapine as an anti-AIDS drug.

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