When Minister Blade Nzimande was appointed to the Cabinet by President Jacob Zuma, some voices in the South African Communist Party (SACP) questioned the wisdom of him continuing to serve as the general secretary of the SACP. Given the experience of the SACP with some of its members who served in Thabo Mbeki’s cabinet and who often seemed [...]
Posts under ‘HIV/AIDS’
The ANC is not the state
Living in a constitutional democracy can be unsettling and complicated – especially if one has not embraced the values underlying a functioning constitutional democracy. In such a democracy all role players must accept that there are competing views of what constitutes the public good. They also have to accept that it is legitimate for members [...]
The story of Selinah: WWMS?°
Listening to SAFM this morning, I was alerted to the advert below, showing in the most stunningly visual and moving manner that those who question(ed) the link between HIV and AIDS and the potential benefits of anti-retroviral treatment have a lot to answer for. Wonder what former President Thabo Mbeki would make of it.
Writing to [...]
Twenty children and counting
The ANC wants us to believe news that President Jacob Zuma has fathered yet another child out of wedlock (and hence that he has had sex with yet another woman who is not one if his wives without using a condom) is a private matter. Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya is quoted as saying that Zuma’s right to [...]
World Aids Day
Today is World Aids Day. In South Africa, perhaps more than anywhere else in the world, we may want to take a moment to ponder the significance of this day as South Africa now has more H.I.V.-infected people and annual AIDS deaths than any other in the world. As someone personally affected by HIV, this is an important [...]
On Julius Malema, HIV and democracy
I must admit it made a welcome change: Instead of cringing with embarrassment, I sat at the traffic light and gave a little cheer when I heard on the radio what ANC Youth League President Julius Malema had said about HIV/AIDS. Speaking at the Pan African Youth Union, Malema said it is up to Africa’s youth to stop [...]
Thabo Mbeki’s strange relationship with the truth continues
Politicians call it “plausible deniability”. One makes a statement that everyone who hears it believes to mean X. The generally accepted meaning of X is, however, untrue. But one has parsed the words in such a way that one could always later claim never to have said what everyone thought one had said – even [...]
Death comes to the Free State
We are living in the silly season in the run-up to the election, so reports in today’s Cape Times about the collapse of the ARV roll-out in the Free State should be big news. Here we have an ANC government who in November last year decided to kill off some of the poorest of the [...]
On “deliberate falsehoods” and conspiracies
Why is it that South Africans so love conspiracies and are so quick to believe in them? Your paper not delivered this morning? Must be a conspiracy involving various journalists, the tooth fairy and maybe Father Christmas (or Santa Clause as they call the ugly fat guy with the cotton wool beard here in the USA). [...]
Kgalema Motlanthe, HIV/AIDS and the ANC
The Presidency of Thabo Mbeki was in many ways an utter disaster. Insecure, angry, vindictive and far too sure of his own ability to know everything and be the cleverest person in the room, Mbeki acted in ways that had devastating effects on especially poor and black South Africans. This was never more evident than [...]
