JOHANNESBURG, Nov 22, 2006 (AFP) - South Africa's controversial health minister, widely derided for advocating a diet of vegetables to help combat AIDS, received a show of support Wednesday at a march by traditional healers.
Several hundred healers gathered in support of Manto Tshabalala-Msimang in central Johannesburg, slamming criticism of the minister as "racist".
Some carried placards against the country's main anti-AIDS lobby, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), while others read: "Manto, you can do it".
Dubbed "Doctor Beetroot" by her critics, Tshabalala-Msimang was recently ridiculed by the UN's top envoy for AIDS in Africa for harbouring "theories more worthy of a lunatic fringe than of a concerned and compassionate state."
The TAC has also demanded the minister be sacked for not paying enough attention to the role of anti-retrovirals (ARVs) in helping fight AIDS.
Around 5.5 million of the country's population of 47 million are infected with HIV, the second highest rate in the world after India.
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