Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - June 9 2000

The fact that the president flirted with, or even bought into, the dissident position on HIV/Aids, is his business and his business alone. The fact that he left the marks of his lapse of good judgement not only on Aids policy but on the reputation of South Africa affects us all. Presidential representative Parks Mankahlana is right when he insists that nowhere does Mbeki express a belief that HIV is not the cause of Aids. Nor does he say anywhere that he is a supporter of the Aids dissident position.

Unfortunately, this is not the point. Mbeki is a sufficiently canny and experienced politician to understand that politics is about consequences, not about beliefs. It is also about the way in which actions and pronouncements may be used in the broader dialogue of reality.

If Mbeki needs evidence of the truth of this, he should revisit the virusmyth.com website where some of his initial researches into the Aids dissident position were apparently conducted. Here he will find himself presented as the rallying point of an international campaign of resistance against the mainstream of research into and treatment of HIV Aids.

"Support President Mbeki to find the truth about Aids", a click-through banner reads, "Sign the petition."

On the same website Mbeki will find a warm account of his interactions with prominent Aids dissident Ravid Rasnick (who does not believe that HIV is the cause of Aids, but a benign virus).

In short, whatever Mbeki may personally believe, his public persona will be inextricably linked up with some of the more quixotic manifestations of the Aids dissident position.

And, though dissidents like Rasnick and Peter Duesberg would like to style themselves the Galileos of contemporary science, most opinion is that they are modern-day flat-earthers.

There is no question that Mbeki has been tainted by the association. A week ago New York Newsday spoke for much of American opinion when it said: "A certain open-mindedness is fine. But a person can be so open-minded that his brains fall out. At worst Mbeki is a callous demagogue -- skillfully diverting attention from a public health crisis he can't control. Or maybe he's a misguided fool. In any case he's in deep trouble."

If Mbeki failed to appreciate the political dangers, the United States's Clinton administration is only too sensitive, and reportedly pursued diplomatic avenues to point out that the entire binational process between the US and South Africa was being jeopardised by Mbeki's perceived position on HIV/Aids. So, too, was South Africa's political pre-eminence among the nations of Africa.

The US demand in the face of this was that Mbeki repudiate the sentiments he had expressed. Thus far Mbeki's office has done a lot of airbrushing of the offensive bits of the sorry history, but nothing to retract.

Its dominant response has been to kill the messengers, to vilify the scientists who begged for reason, and to lambast the media which reported it.

No matter. Our skins are thick. What is more important is that Mbeki's second-guessing of science has set back the fight against Aids.

By the year 2000, two decades after the start of the HIV/Aids pandemic, South Africa still has no co-ordinated strategy or policy to fight the disease. The government must take much of the blame.

The Aids dissidents debacle is not the first time the Mbeki government has second-guessed science. The memory of Virodene, the industrial solvent that was going to cure Aids, is still fresh, as are assorted other disasters, like the R14-million Sarafina II Aids play that was going to educate the population.

Nor is this the first time that the government has failed to grasp the nettle. The appointment earlier this year of a National Aids Council that could be relied upon not to challenge the official position, but -- by all accounts, as well as the evidence of its subsequent inertia -- not much else, is merely one in a long list of attempts by the government to stifle embarrassing opposition to its failure to deal with the problem.

The time came a long time ago to do something decisive. In constructive spirit, because we know that the president shares with all South Africans the desire to combat this scourge, we have three suggestions. The first is that he disband his committee of scientists. It will not promote debate, it will only provide a platform for the disaffected in the scientific community.

Second is that the government should enter into meaningful debate with South African Aids activists and scientists to frame a serious and co-ordinated policy to deal with the pandemic.

Finally, Mbeki should step back, leave science to the scientists and -- for God's sake, Mr President -- look after the politics.
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