As condemnation of President Thabo Mbeki's decision to sack former deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge intensified yesterday, Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) chairman Zackie Achmat accused Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang of having swiftly overturned gains the AIDS lobby group had made during her seven months of sick leave.
During the minister's long absence, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ncguka had instructed the health department to negotiate an agreement on the Westville prison case, which centres on HIV-infected prisoners' rights to treatment, and the Mathias Rath case, which centres on unregistered HIV medicines, he said. The minister and her director-general, Thami Mseleku, had subsequently reversed those instructions, he said.
The deputy president and Madlala-Routledge have been credited as the driving forces behind SA's new strategic AIDS plan, approved by the cabinet in March. However, Achmat said while Mlambo-Ngcuka had also urged officials to finalise a new policy for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV that would replace single- dose nevirapine with a more effective regimen combining two drugs, this initiative had also been scuppered by the minister.read more
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