Bay Area Reporter - September 14, 2000
S. Predrag

The minister was invited to appear on the talk show after it became known that the Ministry of Health was distributing a document throughout South Africa which claims that international conspirators introduced AIDS to Africa in a bid to reduce its population.

In fact, her officials distributed copies of a chapter of William Cooper's book, Behold, a Pale Horse, which claims that John F. Kennedy's death, invasions from outer space, and AIDS are all linked to a conspiracy by the Illuminati -- a highly secretive international organization -- to reduce the world's population.

Cooper claims the Illuminati introduced AIDS to Africa in 1978 through the smallpox vaccine in an attempt to reduce the African population.

It is beyond belief to many that the South African government, after giving enormous publicity to discredited AIDS dissidents such as Peter Duesberg and David Resnick, now appears to be endorsing the ideas of Cooper, who has often been criticized even among authors of paranormal books.

What is really worrying activists is the fact that this is all happening in a country which is believed to have the fastest-growing AIDS rate in the world -- it already has 4.2 million HIV-positive people (10 percent of its total population) and 1,600 new HIV infections daily.

While the Ministry of Health representative described the distribution of certain parts of Cooper's book as "a routine exchange of information" in order to downplay her embarrassment, the talk show has revealed once again that South African President Thabo Mbeki and his health minister are continuing to question generally accepted scientific belief that HIV causes AIDS.

After the minister of health repeatedly refused to answer whether she believes that HIV causes AIDS, the frustrated talk show host simply said, "I cannot take that rubbish any longer ..."

"I have never in my life heard such rubbish. Here we have a situation where the minister of health sends out a document, amongst others, that is loony tunes, that suggests that the Illuminati have conspired with the aliens to bring about AIDS to reduce the African population.

"The fact that she would not answer that question leads me to be very, very worried indeed," concluded host John Robbie.

Later on, in a comment to the local media, the health minister said that the talk show host "was absolutely rude. If I go on the radio, it is because I want to do a service to the nation." She also said that, "He owes me an apology and owes an apology to all South Africans."

The ruling party -- the African National Congress -- called upon Radio 702 to apologize to the minister and to the nation for the "shabby, despicable treatment and disrespect shown by their talk show host." The ANC statement insisted that Robbie had abused his position as a journalist and that "he must immediately resign or be dismissed for undermining the noble profession of journalism."

Robbie has said that he will neither resign nor apologize -- "My reaction to their statement was one of great disappointment."

However, Robbie was not heard on air for several days following his interview with the minister -- it appears that he had taken some days off.

While officials claim that the incriminating document (Cooper's chapter on the origin of AIDS), which was marked "for African ears only," was sent unsolicited to the Ministry of Health, one opposition politician asked, "Why is she (Tshabalala-Msimang) wasting taxpayers' money on photocopying this total nonsense document?"

Former South African President Nelson Mandela spoke at the 13th International AIDS Conference in Durban in July and called on Mbeki's government to start giving drugs immediately to HIV-positive expectant mothers in order to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the disease.

"History will judge us harshly if we fail to do so now and right now," Mandela said.

His successor, Mbeki, however, still insists that, "We cannot blame everything on a single virus ... poverty is the underlying cause of reduced life expectancy..."
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