I’m not sure whether Manto Tshaballala-Msimang, South Africa’s Minister of Health, is trying to ruin South Africa’s reputation in the health care arena, whether she studied to achieve this, set a goal or whether perhaps this is something hereditary passed down to her from some grandma or grandpa several generations ago that is manifesting itself in the most publicly humiliating ways possible; but whatever the motivation slash reason is, she’s doing a damn fine job of it.
I keep up to date with South African news (every now an again) . This has been a long running issue. Get ready for some Manto-bashing.
Since she was appointed as Minister of Health in 1999, she, as the head of her portfolio, have been ridiculed, embarrassed, humiliated (the last two were mostly self-inflicted) and mocked by all streams of media both nationally throughout South Africa and in the International arena.
She first drew loads of attention to herself, embarrassing the government and Thabo Mbeki himself (actually, he did it to himself) in the process, when she claimed that HIV didn’t cause AIDS. The recommended a diet of beetroot, garlic, lemons and African potatoes as way to control AIDS and refused to distribute ARVs to AIDS patients defending her stance with alleged toxicity of the drugs. The vegetable diet was how she earned herself the name of Dr. Beetroot and virtually made her a star in this condom advert.
She openlt endorsed Matthias Rath, a fraud claiming to be medical doctor, being able to cure or control AIDS with a herbal diet and also warning the poor about the toxicity of ARVs.
Considering South Africa has the highest count of HIV carriers in the world, her ministry had done it’s best to ignore the gravity of the situation. She repeatedly refused spending money on drugs and facilities for HIV sufferers, trying to sweep the issue under the carpet saying it is but one of South Africa’s many health problems and refused to pay it the serious attention it needed. Yet, under her instruction, the Department of Health (notice the acronym, DoH!) remains so delusional they can’t seem to grasp the irony of the first paragraph of her bio on their website.
In 2003 a report found that HIV is such a burden on public funds that putting proper measures in place would actually save the Government money. The report was hidden and only made public when it was somehow leaked by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC).
Eventually the Government accepted the report and forced her to give ARVs to HIV patients and she remained in charge of rolling out the campaign to snub HIV. In 2005, COSATU discovered that of the R 30 million available to her through the Government’s AIDS Trust since 2002, she had spent only R 520,000, much of which were wasted on rent for empty offices and went unspent for idiotic reasons beyond comprehension.
In 2006 at an International AIDS Conference in Toronto, the South African government was openly criticized for their HIV Policies and afterwards over 60 leading AIDS scientists requested from President Thabo Mbeki that Manto Tshaballala-Msimang be dismissed. And then she goes in moans about her position in future AIDS conference.
But she remains in power today.
In February this year (2007) she was admitted to hospital and in March she received a liver transplant. The Sunday Times, a large national newspaper, revealed that in 2005 when she was also in hospital, she had sent the staff out to buy wine, liquor and food. There was also speculation that her liver problems involved alcohol abuse. She threaten to sue the newspaper, but the newspaper declined as much as a retraction.
In August this year (2007) the same newspaper reported that she has a status of prohibited immigrant in Botswana, which came about after she was deported following a conviction of theft. She was convicted of stealing items from patients in a hospital in Botswana. Since then all sorts of skeletons (beetroot still lodged in the ribs) fell out of her closet.
Yet, inexplicably, she remains in her post as Health Minister.
This month (October) a condom scandal was revealed. Several companies were contracted by the Health Ministry to produce condoms to be given away for free by the Health Department. Not two months ago it was discovered that an official of the South African Bureau of Standards was bribed to approve sub-standard and defective condoms. 20 million condoms were recalled and they started show up in random places across South Africa. They were improperly discarded and many were still in the boxes.
And as the numbers of sub-standard condoms are getting ever bigger, her department is once again embroiled in a sex slash HIV related issue, albeit, at this time, only marginally (but there is still plenty to dig). Yet again the question of whether she is fit for office will be brought to Parliament.
Has the cat-like Health Minister used up all her lives, or will she come out the otherside of yet another scandal, still standing and still in the position of Health Minister of South Africa? Speculation is rife.