Mbeki’s AIDS speech disappoints

With calls from the audience of “what about HIV?”, South African President Thabo Mbeki opened the 13th International AIDS Conference in Durban on Sunday night by saying that poverty was the main killer in Africa and the main reason for ill-health across the continent. “We cannot blame everything on a single virus. Poverty is the underlying cause of reduced life expectancy, handicap, disability, starvation, mental illness, stress, suicide, family disintegration and substance abuse,” Mbeki told delegates and participants who seemed visibly disappointed with what he had to say. “I had come here hoping that my President would tell us that he was aware of our pain and suffering. That his government was going to pull out all the stops in trying to deal with this pandemic,” a young woman living with HIV/AIDS told IRIN. “I feel as if we are being left out there to flounder.” She added: “We are hearing about poverty and the differences between rich and poor and between Europe and Africa. But this disease has no boundaries, I wish that he could say that. That anybody could have it.” In his address to delegates on Monday, a former Constitutional Court judge Edwin Cameron, who has gone public on his HIV-positive status, said that he had been stricken by “grief and consternation” by the fact that Mbeki did not say that HIV/AIDS is a sexually transmitted viral disease. “I am disappointed and saddened by the fact that our President has chosen this path,” he said. “The South African government has at every turn mismanaged the epidemic. There has been a lot said, with various committees, forums and panels, but the truth of the matter is that not enough has been done.” “So far the efforts from governments in Africa have failed to command the urgent response that is required for an emergency of this kind,” Cameron added. A shocking report last month by the United Nations AIDS programme - UNAIDS - estimated that 24.5 million people were living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, and that there were 4 million new infections in the region during 1999. It said that in seven countries, all in southern Africa, at least one adult in five is living with HIV. The report added that in countries where 10 percent of the adult population has the HIV infection, almost 80 percent of all deaths in young adults aged 25-45 will be associated with HIV. But in his opening address on Sunday, Mbeki defended his government’s record: “There is absolutely no substance to the allegation that this government is hesitant about fighting HIV/AIDS. We are just trying to find solutions that are situated to South Africa, the southern Africa region and the continent as a whole.” Mbeki did acknowledge that AIDS was having a devastating effect on young people. “The hopes and lives of the breadwinners, providers and parents of the future are in jeopardy,” he stressed. “Many of the most talented and industrious citizens who build a better world face tragically early deaths because of HIV infection.” However, in reference to his controversial statements prior to the Durban conference, that HIV may not be the cause of AIDS, Mbeki said: “As an African speaking at this conference convened to discuss the grave human problem such as AIDS, I believe that we should speak to one another honestly and frankly with sufficient tolerance to allow all voices to be heard.” Last week an estimated 5,000 scientists from around the world signed the ‘Durban Declaration’ avowing that HIV caused AIDS. Among them were prominent South Africans, some of whom were asked by Mbeki to sit on an AIDS review panel established to investigate the issue and to report back to him at the end of the year. An estimated 10,000 delegates are expected to attend this week’s conference which has the theme of ‘Breaking the Silence.’