Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reuters NewMedia - Friday, September 29, 2000
"Apartheid killed many people, but AIDS could obliterate our economy and country," he told students at Graduands University in a remote part of the country's Northern Province.
"By far the most powerful enemy in South Africa today is the HIV/AIDs pandemic. It is real. It is spreading," he said in a prepared speech delivered late Thursday and received by Reuters Friday.
South African President Thabo Mbeki has sparked widespread controversy by saying he will not accept there is a link between the HIV virus and AIDS until it is proved by an international panel he has appointed.
Former President Nelson Mandela, however, repudiated his successor's views in an interview published Friday. He said HIV was the primary cause of the disease, which threatens to kill six million South Africans over the next 10 years.
Mboweni said one of the most important ways to combat the spread of the disease was through education.
"As of now, prevention is the only available means to avoid HIV/AIDS," he said.
Around 45 percent of people in low-income communities either believed there was a cure for AIDS or that it was not a fatal disease, he said.
More than 10 percent of South Africans -- about 4.2 million people -- are believed to be carrying the HIV virus.
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