[Pharm-policy] Mr Parks Mankahlana: BUILDING A MONUMENT TO INTOLERANCE

[James Love]

Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 15:14:37 +0200
From: Dr Ian Roberts <irobmoh@icon.co.za>
To: ip-health@venice.essential.org
Subject: [Ip-health] BUILDING A MONUMENT TO INTOLERANCE



Release from Mr Parks Mankahlana - Head of Communications - President
Mbeki's Office:

BUILDING A MONUMENT TO INTOLERANCE

The Presidency spent considerable time the past week searching
frantically for a passage in the President&#8217;s speeches, which said
an HIV positive condition, does not lead to AIDS. Neither his private
correspondence nor a reconstruction of all the discussions with either
his Ministers or any other authority on the question of HIV and AIDS
could produce any evidence of this. So the President has never said that
HIV does not cause AIDS.

We then wondered why the President is said to have come to the conclusion
that HIV does not lead to AIDS, leading to the South African government
embarking on a `bewildering change of policy'; on this very
critical matter.

It turns out the President's cardinal sin was making contact with
someone by the name of David Rasnick who does not share the commonly held
view that HIV leads to AIDS. It is said that it is wrong for him to talk
to such people. They are even called dissidents. If he spoke to these
people he would undermine the work done over the many years and he would
cause South Africans and other people who live with HIV and AIDS to lower
their guard.

Now many people have spoken to Dr Rasnick and other so-called dissidents
and no one is saying that they believe that the causal connection between
AIDS and HIV does not exist. Many journalists have even published the
views of Rasnick and his companions but no such opprobrium has been
visited upon them.

Assailants of the President therefore argue that the President must not
question the accepted hypothesis on HIV / AIDS. He must then give AZT to
HIV pregnant women and those who have been victims of rape. He must tell
his people to use condoms and practice safe sex. He must not listen to
anyone that disagrees with the accepted line of thinking and the problem
of HIV and AIDS will come to an end.

A cursory examination of the President's public pronouncements will
show the President is actively campaigning for the use of condoms and
safe sex. In fact, it is policy in each government department, and more
especially the Presidency, to make condoms easily available to all those
who wish to use them. Each and every hallway or public amenity in the
Union Buildings in Pretoria and Tuynhuys in Cape Town has a dispensary
for condoms. This practice has been particularly promoted during the
Presidency of Mbeki.

Having done all these things, reality still stares Mbeki in the face that
the spread of AIDS continues unabated.

Mbeki's dilemma is compounded by the fact that he does not have the
option to dispense AZT to people because it is simply unaffordable. Not
only is AZT not a cure for HIV/AIDS, but also it has been proven to be
ineffective unless it is used together with other drugs. This regime
costs at least R4 000,00 a month.

Given that the government will not afford the cocktails that are
prescribed for the treatment of HIV/AIDS, our response to the pandemic
must be the distribution of condoms and an unwavering belief that HIV is
the sole cause of AIDS. This approach says we must sit back and do
nothing about HIV and AIDS. It says that the problem is beyond our
comprehension and therefore impossible to resolve. We definitely cannot
accept this approach.

Mbeki says this approach is inadequate. We cannot be content with knowing
what the cause of the illness is. We must eradicate the sickness from the
face of the earth. Because there is no cure for HIV/ AIDS and because
people continue to die from AIDS the search for a solution must continue.
This is all President Thabo Mbeki is advocating.

Humanity is faced with a difficult problem that in the remarkable
advances that have been made in science and technology notwithstanding,
we are faced with a complex disease that is threatening to destroy the
whole of humanity. The propensity to self-destruct and search for
non-existent adversaries is common when people find themselves under
siege.

In any case why are we told a lie that AZT is a panacea to the problem of
AIDS. It simply is not. And why are critics of Mbeki creating the
impression that it is when they know it isn't?

In fact it is Mbeki's critics that are in denial about HIV/AIDS
because they advocate a false sense of hope that a certain drug will
intervene in the problem. This is not the case.

There is a raging debate in scientific circles that antibiotics are
harmful to health. We have been using these wonder drugs for decades.
Many can rightfully claim their livelihood to these drugs. And yet no one
is accusing those who initiated these questions about antibiotics of
being 'scientifically naive and foolish';.

But then why is it that what we know about HIV and AIDS should not be
questioned, the glaring inadequacies in humanity's response to the
problem notwithstanding?

In the effort to find a solution to the perennial problem of poverty and
inequality, all of humankind is revising the conventionally accepted
theories about development and economic policies that need to be
implemented to make the world a better place to live in. Suddenly there
is talk of adopting a 'third way';. The World Bank and many
other institutions are revising their prescriptions about how the
difficulties that confront us should be tackled. And no one is accusing
them of being 'scientifically naive and foolish.'

The search for an answer to the problem of HIV / AIDS must be
re-invigorated. That is why we are putting an international panel
together to re-evaluate what we know and which is clearly not complete
and therefore not the answer. Someone must explain the different strains
of the virus and why it seems to take different forms depending on
one's geographic location on the map of the globe. Frankly we
cannot satisfy ourselves with the definition that the foreskins of the
Zulu are the explanation for the rapid spread of the disease in one
section of the country.

Government is strong in its resolve that we cannot confine our response
to the problem of HIV/AIDS to an injunction not to speak to David Rasnick
or telling people how to think. Whether we speak to Rasnick or not,
whether there are thought police to monitor what others think, human
beings will continue to die from AIDS.

A disturbing trend in the response to the current debate has been the
rabid intolerance to different viewpoints that has been displayed in the
South African media. One prominent commentator even brandished the
President a criminal because he spoke to Rasnick and also because he
dared think beyond what is accepted wisdom. Surely we do not want to
return to the days of Stoffel Botha and the total onslaught. As far as we
know all efforts to prescribe how other people should think have failed
all over the world, both under capitalism and erstwhile socialism. Even
dictatorships and fascism failed to suppress the freedom of the human
mind to wonder in search of solutions to the intractable problems that
face us.

Government advocates safe sex and the use of condoms as one of the
elementary responses to the problem of HIV / AIDS. The President is going
to continue to mobilise public awareness about the dreadful nature of the
disease.

Furthermore President Mbeki is going to intensify the fight for the end
of discrimination against and exploitation of people who live with
HIV/AIDS, both by insurance and medical schemes and the pharmaceutical
giants who are the sole beneficiaries in the dogged defence of AZT by
large sections of the media. Yes they buy a lot of advertising space and
are therefore a strong ally of publishing and broadcasting houses, to the
detriment of the millions that live with HIV and AIDS

End