The New York Times - August 20, 2007
Michael Wines

But never, certainly, as thin as this.

The minister, Dr. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, has for two straight weekends been the subject of explosive allegations, published in The Sunday Times in Johannesburg, that she is an alcoholic, a petty criminal and a liar. The latest broadside, under the headline "Manto: A Drunk and a Thief," relied on unnamed sources to contend that Ms. Tshabalala-Msimang essentially received a liver transplant last March under false pretenses, ordering her doctors to hide the fact that her liver had failed because of heavy drinking.

Twenty other patients were awaiting liver transplants at the time, the newspaper has reported, quoting unidentified medical experts as saying that some of them were "more deserving" of an emergency transplant.

The newspaper also reported that Ms. Tshabalala-Msimang had been expelled in the late 1970s from Botswana, where she had been supervisor of a hospital, after being convicted of stealing a patient's watch while the patient was under anesthesia.

The allegations remain unproved and publicly undocumented. Through a spokesperson, Ms. Tshabalala-Msimang has denounced them as "false, speculative and bizarre," and threatened to sue the newspaper.

But almost as curious, in the view of some political analysts, has been the government's response. President Mbeki's spokesman dismissed the initial reports of the minister's drinking sprees as unworthy of investigation. After Sunday's allegations involving the liver transplant and theft, both the president's office and the working committee of the African National Congress, which Mr. Mbeki heads, said that the charges would not be investigated unless the government is presented with proof.

"We must get evidence and then we will respond to the evidence that is available," said Mukoni Ratshitanga, Mr. Mbeki's spokesman. "There is no investigation to conduct."

One political analyst, Steven Friedman of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa, said the notion that there was nothing to look into was not believable because the accusations, even not proved, were so serious.

"Either what appeared in The Sunday Times is lies, and she ought to sue, or she shouldn't be the minister," he said. "The response of the president that, æWell, they haven't produced any evidence that her ability to handle her job is impaired' is not a credible response."

Ms. Tshabalala-Msimang has come under fire before, and Mr. Mbeki has stood behind her, for her handling of South Africa's AIDS crisis. South Africa lagged as neighboring nations rolled out free drug treatment for people with AIDS, and Ms. Tshabalala-Msimang has repeatedly questioned the safety of antiretroviral drugs.

She has also suggested that natural remedies like garlic and beetroot would strengthen the body's defenses against H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS.

Her stance was followed by detractors calling her "Garlic Manto" and "Dr. Beetroot." Mr. Mbeki has retained her as minister but eased her out of charting AIDS strategies while she was hospitalized for her liver transplant.

Some outside experts see politics at work in the latest brouhaha. The articles, which the newspaper stated had been in the works for months, were published barely a week after Mr. Mbeki fired Ms. Tshabalala-Msimang's deputy, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, whose public stance on H.I.V. diverges far from that of the health minister.

Ms. Madlala-Routledge briefly took over AIDS issues for the ministry after Ms. Tshabalala-Msimang was hospitalized in March, and it was during her tenure that the government did an about-face and began an aggressive drug therapy program for AIDS patients.

Mr. Mbeki's dismissal of her has become an international issue. Some political experts say it has even set back his prospects for winning a third term as president of the African National Congress, which will meet in December to choose its leader.

Anton Harber, a highly respected South African newspaper editor who now runs the journalism program at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, said that the South African newspaper had a solid record of investigative reporting and that its articles should be taken seriously.

It would prove devastating to the newspaper, and perhaps to South African journalism in general, should the latest charges against Ms. Tshabalala-Msimang be proved false, Mr. Harber added. But so far, he said, the government's response appears to have been "self-evidently evasive."

"The ball is in the minister's court," he said.

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