Desmond Tutu: South African govt. to blame for AIDS deaths;anti-apartheid activists would be shocked

Retired archbishop Desmond Tutu blamed the government on Friday for the preventable deaths of South Africans from HIV/Aids. He said the delaying of the introduction of a national HIV/Aids treatment plan, and the unorthodox views on the disease by government leaders, had led to the deaths.

Speaking at the Nelson Mandela University in Eastern Cape, where he was presented with an honorary degree, the Nobel peace laureate said the fallen anti-apartheid heroes would be shocked by the devastation caused by the HIV/Aids pandemic which, he said, was killing 900 South Africans every day.

"They would be glad that a more realistic plan was in place, but they would lament that too many died unnecessarily because of bizarre theories held on high."...

Madlala-Routledge, a rising star in the South African Communist Party, publicly criticised the health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, a close Mbeki ally, who has angered researchers, doctors and activists by saying that Aids should be fought with garlic and beetroot in preference to anti-retroviral drugs.

Tutu said former anti-apartheid activists would be shocked at the extent of crime in modern South Africa. "Why is there so much corruption? They would be shocked that so many still live in shacks that the gap between rich and poor is growing," he said. - Reuters

http://www.sundayindependent.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4014251

Madlala-Routledge, a rising star in the South African Communist Party, publicly criticised the health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, a close Mbeki ally, who has angered researchers, doctors and activists by saying that Aids should be fought with garlic and beetroot in preference to anti-retroviral drugs.

Madlala-Routledge is just a tool of Big Pharma, trying to protect this monster market from falling into the hands of the sensible, often oppressed, natural (herbal) remedy practitioners.:sarcasm:

A huge problem with combating the spread of HIV in Africa is that there are many powerful and influential leaders who have been spreading lies about the effectiveness of traditional medicine while spreading vicious lies about the ineffectiveness of HIV meds. There is also a huge problem with traditional folklore on how to cure AIDS such as by sleeping with a virgin and other such nonsense.

These stories always make me sad.

fighting AIDs it took another decade at least for some of South Africa's leaders to jump on the wagon. Some of them, after years of mistreatment and manipulation and terror perpetuated by white men, believed AIDs was caused by whites. Took way to long for it to be treated like an epidemic should...with science.