Manto Tshabalala-Msimang
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Manto Tshabalala-Msimang | |
 |
|
|
|
|
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 1999 |
|
|
Deputy Minister of Justice
|
|
| In office 1996 – 1999 |
|
|
|
|
| Born | October 9, 1940 |
|---|---|
| Political party | African National Congress |
| Spouse | Mendi Msimang |
Dr. Mantombazana Edmie Tshabalala-Msimang (born 9 October 1940) is the controversial Health Minister of South Africa under the government of Thabo Mbeki (as of 2007). She was Deputy Minister of Justice from 1996 to 1999, and has served as Health Minister since 1999.
Her emphasis on treating South Africa's AIDS epidemic with vegetables such as garlic and beetroot, rather than with antiretroviral medicines, has been the subject of international criticism.
Contents |
[edit] Education
She graduated from Fort Hare University in 1961. As one of a number of young African National Congress cadres sent into exile for education, she received medical training at the First Leningrad Medical Institute in the Soviet Union from 1962-1969. She then trained as a registrar in obstetrics and gynecology in Tanzania, finishing there in 1972. In 1980 she received a master's in public health from the University of Antwerp in Belgium. She was an official within the exiled ANC leadership in Tanzania and Zambia during the latter decade of apartheid, with job responsibilities focused on the health and well-being of ANC militants there.
[edit] AIDS policies
Her office has been controversial, mainly because of her reluctance to adopt a plan for treating AIDS in the public sector with anti-retroviral medicines (ARVs). She has also been aligned to Matthias Rath, a German physician and vitamin entrepreneur, who has had charges laid against him for discouraging the use of ARVs.[1] She has been called 'Dr Beetroot' for promoting the benefits of beetroot, garlic, lemons, and African potatoes as well as good general nutrition, while referring to possible toxicities of AIDS medicines.[2] She was widely seen as following an AIDS policy in line with the ideas of South African President Thabo Mbeki, who for a time expressed public doubts about whether HIV caused AIDS. In 2002, the South African Cabinet affirmed the policy that "HIV causes AIDS" which as an official statement silenced any further speculation on this topic by Cabinet members, including the President. In August of 2003 the cabinet also voted to make anti-retrovirals available in the public sector, and instructed Tshabalala-Msimang to carry out the policy.
Particularly in the time leading up to this turnabout, but continuing to the present day, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and its founder Zackie Achmat have often targeted the minister for criticism, accusing the government and the Ministry of Health in particular of an inadequate response to the AIDS epidemic. The TAC has led a grassroots campaign calling for her resignation or dismissal.
Tshabalala-Msimang has placed her emphasis on broad public health goals, seeing AIDS as only one aspect of that effort and one which, because of the financial costs of treatment, might impede broader efforts. She has evidently not embraced the idea, advanced by others, that AIDS is such a burden on the public health system that treating it would actually free up costs. A report making the case for this argument was sent back for clarification and not released in the summer of 2003, until it was obtained and leaked by TAC.[3] After the cabinet vote to accept the findings of this report, she has been in charge of the ARV roll-out, but has continued to emphasize the importance of nutrition in AIDS[4] and to urge others to see AIDS as only one problem among many in South African health. A case that attracted much public attention was Nozipho Bhengu, daughter of an African National Congress legislator. The minister declined to attend her funeral, and her stand-in was booed off the podium.
In February 2005, COSATU criticised the health department for the failure to ensure that most of the 30 million rands used to establish the government's AIDS trust in 2002 had been spent.[5] They said only R520,000 of this money has been used and of this a large portion had been squandered on unoccupied offices for the SANAC secretariat, something that has drawn criticism from the auditor-general.
In August 2006, at the International AIDS Conference in Toronto, Stephen Lewis, the United Nations special envoy for AIDS in Africa, closed the conference with a sharp critique of South Africa's government. He said South Africa promoted a "lunatic fringe" attitude toward HIV and AIDS, describing the government as "obtuse, dilatory, and negligent about rolling out treatment".[6][7] After the conference, sixty-five of the world's leading HIV/AIDS scientists (most of them were attending the conference) asked in a letter that Thabo Mbeki dismiss Tshabalala-Msimang.[8]
[edit] Radio interview
In a controversial 2000 interview by Radio 702 presenter John Robbie, Tshabalala-Msimang refused to answer Robbie's questions about whether or not HIV caused AIDS.[9]
[edit] Traditional medicines
At a meeting with traditional healers to discuss future legislation in February 2008, Tshabalala-Msimang argued that traditional remedies should not become "bogged down" in clinical trials, saying, "We cannot use Western models of protocols for research and development".[10]
[edit] Personal
The Minister is married to Mendi Msimang, the treasurer of the African National Congress.
There has been some concern over the minister's health since late 2006. Tshabalala-Msimang was admitted to the Johannesburg Hospital on February 20, 2007, suffering from anaemia and pleural effusion (an abnormal accumulation of fluid around the lungs).[11] The Department of Health approached President Thabo Mbeki, and asked him to appoint an acting minister, and on 26 February Jeff Radebe was appointed acting health minister.[12] On March 14, 2007, Tshabalala-Msimang underwent a liver transplant. The stated cause was autoimmune hepatitis with portal hypertension, but the transplant was surrounded by accusations of heavy drinking.[13] She has since recovered her health and returned to her Ministerial duties. [14]
[edit] Scandal
On August 12, 2007, four days after the controversial dismissal of her deputy minister, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, the Sunday Times ran an article on a previous hospital stay in 2005 for a shoulder operation, titled "Manto’s hospital booze binge". [15] The article alleges that she sent hospital workers out to fetch wine, whisky and food items, in one case at 1:30 am. Tshabalala-Msimang has threatened legal action against the newspaper on the grounds that they are in possession of her medical records. The paper has defended its statements, however, stating that "a retraction was not under consideration". [16] The article also reported speculation among "many top medical experts at state and private institutions, who refused to be named as they feared retribution from the health ministry" that her liver condition was alcohol-induced. [15]
According to a Sunday Times article published on August 19, 2007, the minister is a convicted thief who had stolen patient items at a hospital in Botswana, and had been deported from Botswana and declared a prohibited immigrant.[15]
[edit] ANC politics
With the endorsement of Jacob Zuma's supporters, she was re-elected to the ANC's 80-member National Executive Committee in December 2007 in 55th place, with 1,591 votes.[17]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Watson J (2006). "Scientists, activists sue South Africa's AIDS 'denialists'". Nat. Med. 12 (1): 6. doi:. PMID 16397537. “Separately, health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has long provoked outrage with her public support of garlic, lemon and beetroot as defenses against AIDS, as well as her ongoing affiliations with denialists like Rath.”
- ^ Blandy, Fran. "'Dr Beetroot' hits back at media over Aids exhibition", Mail & Guardian Online, 2006-08-16.
- ^ DA Calls for Release of AIDS Report
- ^ Manto again angers AIDS activists
- ^ COSATU: 'AIDS money not spent'
- ^ South Africa Aids policy attacked
- ^ SA govt under fire at Aids conference
- ^ News24: 'Please fire Manto now'
- ^ "'Don't call me Manto'" (transcript of interview), BBC News, September 14, 2000.
- ^ BBC NEWS | Africa | No clinical trials for SA healers
- ^ News24: 'Manto's 'on the mend
- ^ IOL: Mbeki names stand-in for ailing health chief
- ^ Press release from the South African Department of Health, describing Tshabalala-Msimang's disease and liver transplant. Accessed May 1, 2007.
- ^ http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=310730&area=/insight/insight__national/
- ^ a b c Manto’s hospital booze binge, Sunday Times article. Published August 12, 2007. Accessed August 15, 2007.
- ^ Sunday Times: Manto story is 'accurate', Mail and Guardian. Published August 14, 2007. Accessed August 15, 2007.
- ^ Brendan Boyle, "Winnie Mandela tops ANC election list", The Times (South Africa), December 21, 2007.
[edit] External links
- Tshabalala-Msimang's CV
- Democratic Alliance website detailing Tshabalala-Msimang's failures and gaffes
- Sack Manto, a South African initiative to oust the incumbent minister
- Eighty Scientists Condemn South Africa's AIDS Policies
- Aids experts condemn SA minister
- Transcript of radio interview with Tshabalala-Msimang, asking her whether HIV causes AIDS
In her own words:
- The Minister presenting the health budget priorities for 2005
- Parliamentary Media Briefing, Feb 2005
|
||||||||
|
|||||||||||
