South African Press Association - August 27, 2007

"In defence of good governance and to support Ms Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, a fund has been set up to assist her with short-term financial needs related to non-payment of her salary and to cover any legal costs of defending these claims by the government," a TAC statement said.

Madlala-Routledge was sacked earlier in August, partly because she travelled to Spain to an HIV/Aids conference without authorisation from President Thabo Mbeki.

She has since reportedly been asked to pay back the costs associated with that trip, as well as rent on a government-owned house and money owed to the government while she was deputy defence minister.

The TAC said it will also hold a rally in support of her at St George's Cathedral in Cape Town on Wednesday, and it has written to Mbeki asking that he reinstate her and fire Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.

A portion of the letter read: "Without getting into the complex and unpleasant debates ensuing around our current minister of health, we call for her immediate dismissal on the basis of the current dismal state of our health system and her poor performance.

"The public health sector is buckling under the strain of insufficient resources, a serious shortage of health professionals and poor management."

Deaths

The TAC said every day about 900 South Africans die "needlessly" of Aids-related conditions and TB [tuberculosis] is "soaring out of control".

"Twenty-three thousand babies die annually in the first month of their lives; thousands more are stillborn, all of this while budgets remain mismanaged as reported by the Public Service Accountability Monitor. Since Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang's appointment as national Minister of Health, more than one million South Africans have died of Aids-related conditions.

"This depicts an utter failure of her ability to fulfil her mandate and renders her unsuitable for the position of health minister, based entirely on utterly poor performance."

In the letter, the TAC also calls for fast-tracking previous commitments such as antiretroviral therapy to prison inmates; dual therapy to prevent mother-to-child transmission; wide access and endorsement of antiretroviral therapy; a complete and urgent restructuring of the public health system; and high-level mass endorsement of knowing one's HIV status.

The Sunday Times recently published a series of articles claiming Tshabalala-Msimang drank alcohol while under medical care and while waiting for a liver transplant, and that she stole items from a hospital in Botswana where she was a superintendent.

The "Support Good Governance -- Support Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge Fund" will be managed and accounted for by the Aids Law Project. Leftover funds will go to the Ingwavuma Orphans Project, the TAC said.

The committee will include Andrew Feinstein (former African National Congress MP); Adila Hassim, the acting director of the Aids Law Project; Vuyokazi Matiso, TAC national executive committee member; and Cheryl Gilwald, former deputy minister of correctional services.

'Suspicious'

The financial demands being made on Madlala-Routledge are "crippling" and "suspicious", the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Monday.

"There is growing evidence that the government is singling out the former deputy minister and conducting a vendetta against her," said Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven. "It is highly suspicious that money allegedly outstanding since as early as 1999 is only now being recovered.

"If the government is so concerned about auditing the spending of taxpayers' money, why has it taken so long to discover that these amounts are outstanding?"

Craven said the financial demands on Madlala-Routledge have "left her penniless and unable to pay her bills".

Cosatu believes the government has broken the law by withdrawing Madlala-Routledge's final salary payment -- supposedly to reclaim the cost of her trip to Spain -- without informing her. "Under the Basic Conditions of Employment Act it is illegal to make such deductions from a salary without the employee's consent."

Craven said the government has a right to recover public money it believes has been misused. However, Cosatu is not convinced the action against Madlala-Routledge is part of a policy being generally applied, he said.

Cosatu said that in the interests of consistency, the government should undertake an audit of all ministers and senior officials and demand immediate repayments on any money owed.

"If they are not prepared to do this, the government should withdraw the demands being made on Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge," said Craven.

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