DURBAN, South Africa, Aug 6 (AFP) - South Africa's government came under attack Wednesday for its hesitancy in implementing an AIDS treatment plan, with a leading activist and a major newspaper begging it to stop the "madness".

Zackie Achmat, chairman of the AIDS lobby group Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), speaking after a briefing by the health ministry at an AIDS conference in the east coast city of Durban, said AIDS had become a deeply political issue in South Africa.

"I am an ANC (ruling African National Congress) member and I can tell you that the ANC will do itself enormous harm if it does not have a treatment plan in place by next year's election," he said.

"AIDS has become a political issue, because everyone that is infected needs access to anti-AIDS drugs."

UNAIDS estimates 360,000 deaths in 2001 from AIDS in South Africa -- an average of nearly 1,000 per day. On Monday scientists warned that South Africa was entering a "death phase" of the disease and should expect a rapidly rising mortality rate.

"The reason South Africa cannot move forward is that President Thabo Mbeki and the health minister (Manto Tshabalala-Msimang) are HIV denialists," Achmat said in reference to Mbeki's stated belief that factors other than HIV could lead to AIDS.

In the past week the South African government has come under heavy criticism for failing to roll out a national plan to help AIDS sufferers and for choosing to focus on "nutritious diets" as a way to fight the disease for those infected.

In an editorial on Wednesday Cape Town-based newspaper Die Burger -- carried unusually on its front page instead of the inside pages -- called for an end to the government's "insanity" over AIDS.

"It is the strongest form of protest available to us to express the concern and disapproval of our editorial staff and our readers over the government's handling of the crisis," editor Arrie Rossouw said.

The Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Njongonkulu Ndungane, has also criticised the government about its approach to the disease.

"The AIDS pandemic has become a world disgrace as serious as apartheid," Ndungane said at a media briefing in Cape Town.

The four-day conference was conceived as a crossroads of local communities and the worlds of science and activism, but the tenor of the Durban gathering has been combative, with most participants denouncing the lack of a national treatment plan.

At a TAC protest march outside the conference on Monday Achmat accused the government of committing crimes against humanity by not allowing the population access to AIDS drugs.

"Why is he (Mbeki) quiet while we are dying? I tell you something now, we are going to be quiet no longer," he said.

On Tuesday, the ANC in the KwaZulu-Natal province urged all "patriotic South Africans" to ignore the TAC's call to embark on a civil disobedience campaign to pressurise government into rolling out a national treatment plan.

In reaction, Achmat said he wished the ANC had the courage to tell their leader, Mbeki, that he was wrong about AIDS. Achmat added that the government preferred to advocate traditional medicines as treatment instead of anti-retrovirals.

"I wish the ANC had the courage to tell President Mbeki what they really feel," he said.

The health minister said at the opening of the conference that the accusations that the government was committing genocide were ill-advised.

"This is an irresponsible statement and one that is politically dangerous," Tshabalala-Msimang said.

Ayanda Ntsabula, the director general of the health ministry, told journalists and Achmat, who attended Wednesday's briefing, that two issues had bogged down the Durban conference -- "differences" about the government's non-provision of anti-retroviral AIDS drugs and a decision by the Medicines Control Council to deregister the nevirapine drug.

"All of us need to avoid communicating a negative message that negates information sharing," he said.

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