Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - November 29, 2004

*The first two official Aids deaths.

1983

*The Department of Health reassures South Africans that Aids only poses a threat to homosexuals.

1985

*The government sets up an Aids advisory group that includes immunologist Dr Reuben Sher.

1987

*The Chamber of Mines identifies 130 employees with HIV/Aids. The government issues regulations allowing non-citizens with HIV/Aids to be denied entry or deported.

1988

*The PFP spokesman on health, Dr Marius Barnard, calls for HIV/Aids "carriers" to be isolated.

*The contracts of HIV-positive mineworkers from neighbouring countries are not renewed.

*The government launches its first Aids awareness campaign.

1989

*Sher warns that HIV/AIDS could become "a biological holocaust".

1990

*"Everyone must strive for themselves and those closest to them to change their risky sexual behaviour and settle for a single sex partner, preferably within a marriage." - Dr Rina Venter, Health Minister.

*The first antenatal surveys of HIV are carried out, and 0.7% of pregnant women test positive.

*"We are still at the beginning of the Aids epidemic in our country. Unattended, however, this will result in untold damage and suffering by the end of the century." - Umkhonto weSizwe leader Chris Hani.

1991

*The number of heterosexually contracted HIV infections overtakes homosexual infections.

1992

*The National Aids Convention of South Africa (Nacosa) is formed to develop a national strategy.

1993

*The Health Department reports that the number of recorded HIV infections has increased by 60% in the previous two years.

1995

*Nacosa's appeal for Aids policy to be run from the President's office is refused.

1996

*Nacosa holds a briefing on Aids for MPs but only 14 attend.

*Public outcry over the government's allocation of R14.3-million to Sarafina 2, an Aids education play. No proper tender procedures are followed.

1997

*An Inter-ministerial Committee on HIV/Aids is set up in Parliament.

1998

*The government replaces the Medicines Control Council after it refuses to fast-track approval for Virodene, the Aids treatment promoted by Zuma and Deputy President Thabo Mbeki. It is later found to contain a toxic industrial solvent.

*The government decides not to give AZT to pregnant women.

*The Partnership Against Aids is launched by Mbeki.

*The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) is launched.

1999

*"There also exists a large volume of scientific literature alleging that, among other things, the toxicity of [AZT] is such that it is a danger to health," President Mbeki tells the National Council of Provinces, in the first public indication that he is starting to question orthodox views.

*The Department of Health has its first contact with Aids "dissidents" when Professor Charles Geshekter meets Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.

2000

*Mbeki contacts dissident Dr David Rasnick.

*Mbeki establishes the Presidential Advisory Panel on Aids, consisting of orthodox and dissident scientists.

*South Africa hosts the International Aids Conference in Durban. Prominent scientists issue the "Durban Declaration", saying HIV causes Aids. Presidential spokesman Parks Mankahlana says it belongs in the dustbin.

*The Sunday Times publishes an exchange of letters about Aids between Mbeki and DA leader Tony Leon. In these, Mbeki claims racist ideas about African sexuality are driving notions about the epidemic.

*During a debate in Parliament, Mbeki says that "a virus cannot cause a syndrome" and warns that "if any MPs are taking these [antiretroviral] drugs, they need to have a look at that otherwise they are going to suffer negative consequences".

* Mankahlana dies. While there is official denial that he died of Aids, a document later circulated in ANC circles claims he was killed by antiretroviral drugs.

2001:

*The TAC, Dr Haroon Saloojee and the Children's Rights Centre file a motion in the Pretoria High Court to compel the government to make nevirapine available to all women who give birth in state hospitals. The case is won, and later upheld by the Constitutional Court.

*Mbeki questions the accuracy of Aids death statistics.

2002

*ANC leader Peter Mokaba distributes Castro Hlongwane, Caravans, Cats, Geese, Foot and Mouth and Statistics within the party. The document claims that those who oppose Aids dissidents are inspired by racist beliefs about African promiscuity. The document's embedded electronic signature is traced to Mbeki.

*The TAC and M dicins Sans Fronti res announce that they are importing antiretrovirals from Brazil.

*"The denial of the facts about Aids is not only an outrage against the truth. It is a profound insult to those South Africans who are living with and dying from the effects of the virus." - Judge Edwin Cameron

*The Cabinet decides that antiretrovirals should be made available to all rape survivors as post-exposure prophylaxis, and that the government should examine ways to introduce the drugs into public health.

*Mokaba dies of "natural causes".

*Anglo American says it will give its workers antiretrovirals.

*"South Africa cannot afford drugs to fight HIV and Aids partly because it needs submarines to deter attacks from nations such as the US," The Guardian quotes Tshabalala-Msimang as saying.

2003

*10 000 people march at the opening of Parliament calling for antiretrovirals for all who need them.

*Finance Minister Trevor Manuel almost doubles funding for Aids treatment.

*Tshabalala-Msimang appoints Aids dissident Dr Roberto Giraldo as her nutritional adviser.

*The TAC launches a civil disobedience campaign.

*"Personally, I don't know anybody who has died of Aids. I really honestly don't." - Mbeki in an interview in the Washington Post.

*The Cabinet approves an Aids treatment plan that will offer free antiretrovirals everywhere.

*Tshabalala-Msimang continues to advocate a diet of beetroot, olive oil, African potato and garlic.

2004

*The government is criticised for taking too long to offer antiretrovirals in all health districts.

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