JOHANNESBURG, Sept 17, 2006 (AFP) - The South African government warned the country's main anti-AIDS lobby on Sunday that a campaign to oust controversial Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang was doomed to failure.
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has appealed for four million rand (550,000 dollars) in donations to fund a campaign which will feature a series of rallies later this month, including outside the parliament in Cape Town.
As part of the campaign, it also plans to deliver a mass petition to President Thabo Mbeki calling for the dismissal of Tshabalala-Msimang, who has advocated a diet of beetroot, olive oil, garlic and potatoes to help fight AIDS.
"While the prospect of success of this campaign is almost nil, the money being raised can save lives by procuring millions of condoms or provide antiretroviral treatment to more than a thousand people," the health ministry said in a statement.
"The concern is that four million rand is being spent on a campaign that will not make any difference in improving the response to HIV and AIDS... Four million rand can buy more than 18 million male condoms or 500,000 female condoms at current state prices."
Calls for the sacking of Tshabalala-Msimang -- who has been dubbed Dr Beetroot -- have grown louder in recent weeks, with more than 80 scientists and a Nobel laureate writing a letter to Mbeki earlier this month to demand her removal.
Tshabalala-Msimang and the government were recently lampooned by the United Nations' top envoy for AIDS in Africa, Stephen Lewis, for harbouring "theories more worthy of a lunatic fringe than of a concerned and compassionate state".
A spokesman for the TAC dismissed the health ministry's statement, saying it smacked of hypocrisy.
"That's rich coming from a department that has done everything possible to block access to ARVs (antiretroviral drugs)," Nathan Geffen told AFP.
Around 5.5 million of the country's 47 million population are infected with HIV, the second highest rate in the world after India.
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