Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
South African Press Association - September 10, 2006
This comes after the inter-ministerial committee (IMC) on HIV/Aids was enlarged and Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka appointed as spokesperson.
According to Saturday Star reports this weekend, Mlambo-Ngcuka had been brought in as a damage control measure after numerous ministers voiced concern that the health minister's outbursts were diverting focus from the government's programmes.
Tshabalala-Msimang recently caused controversy at the International Aids Conference in Toronto with her garlic and beetroot HIV/Aids policies.
This led to several heated calls for her to resign or be fired.
Quoting a source, the paper said Cabinet ministers were not concerned with the government's policy on HIV/Aids, but on how it was being communicated.
The effect of Tshabalala-Msimang's personality, and the international view that nothing was being done to curb HIV/Aids in South Africa were seen as problems, read the report.
However the health minister has said she was part of Cabinet discussions and could not see how she had been sidelined.
"The establishment of the IMC is not a new thing, we have had an IMC before. It probably wasn't functioning as well as it should have functioned. I have always been part of the IMC so I welcome the establishment and reinforcement of the IMC," Tshabalala Msimang told the SABC.
South Africa has one of the highest caseloads of HIV in the world, with one in nine of its 45-million population infected with the HIV virus that causes Aids. Aids activists, led by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), accuse Mbeki's government of acting too slowly to curb the pandemic.
The government says it has one of the world's biggest anti-Aids programmes and the Cabinet on Thursday promised to step up its fight against HIV and better communicate its Aids strategy. It shrugged off calls for Tshabalala-Msimang to be sacked.
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