Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - July 20, 2001
Jaspreet Kindra
The former deputy minister of environmental affairs and tourism, who was dropped by President Thabo Mbeki from his ministerial berth after the 1999 general elections, is back from the political wilderness.
Mokaba, a member of the African National Congress's national executive committee, is to head the party's newly constituted election division at its headquarters at Luthuli House, Johannesburg.
For the past two years there has been speculation in the media that the former leader of the ANC Youth League had Aids. The fact that he was absent from Parliament for a good part of 1999 added impetus to the rumours.
Mokaba says he was the victim of a propaganda plot started by pharmaceutical companies in the wake of the controversy over Mbeki questioning the link between HIV and Aids. He says the companies were in search of a "high-profile person" to use in their fight against Mbeki.
But he says he was also a victim of members of the ANC who were campaigning against Mbeki by using the Aids issue.
Mokaba is a loyal supporter of Mbeki. At the ANC's 1993 national congress, he helped Mbeki secure the position of chair by pledging the Youth League's support.
"It has been very traumatic," says Mokaba, referring to the Aids rumours that have dogged him.
"Newspapers even had the name of a Northern Province hospital where I was reported to have been admitted. I have never ever been to that hospital." Mokaba says he had been sick but will not divulge the nature of his illness.
He staunchly defends Mbeki's questioning of what he describes as the "universally accepted" stance that HIV causes Aids.
Mokaba explains with much passion that the ANC will only accept "scientific explanations and facts", and will not believe anything merely because it is "universally accepted".
"The scientific community is not agreed [on the link between the virus and Aids]. People don't even know what they are testing for."
However, asked if he could then be HIV-positive as he does not believe in testing for the disease, he laughs and says: "Yes, according to their [those who accept that HIV causes Aids] tests, I am not HIV-positive."
The ANC will support what has "been proved in a laboratory", he adds. "Just because many people believe in witchcraft -- do we accept that it actually works?"
Mokaba then steers the conversation to his new role as head of elections. He dismisses his "comeback" with a laugh. "As a cadre you serve anywhere you are deployed -- you never see anything as a drawback."
The election unit is a permanent structure that has been created to help the ANC prepare for national and municipal elections, he explains.
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