Stefaans Brmmer
The Office of the President refused this week to comment on a second letter in the media supporting the theories of a conspiracy against President Thabo Mbeki this time from Aids dissident David Rasnick.
First, the Sunday Times carried a letter, in the form of a paid advertisement, signed by 11 prominent black South Africans expressing their confidence in Mbeki. Reflecting a theme oft-repeated in African National Congress and government circles, the signatories said they believed there was a right-wing “disinformation campaign” against the president in the media.
That letter was well received by the presidency. Representative Bheki Khumalo said the president “appreciates the support they’re giving the transformation project”.
Enter Rasnick, a leading figure among scientists who dispute that HIV causes Aids, and a member of Mbeki’s Aids Advisory Panel. In a letter to Business Day this week Rasnick expounded the theory that since former United States president Bill Clinton declared Aids a risk to national security, US intelligence agencies have been allowed to “play a direct role in maintaining and protecting the fiction of a global Aids pandemic”.
Rasnick pointed out that the CIA, among others, had a “dark history”. But Rasnick went further, saying that the South African president had become a target as “Mbeki and South Africa stand alone in all the world in questioning the underlying assumptions about Aids … Covertly, millions of US dollars are being spent to monitor and neutralise Mbeki … Much of this money is used to ‘orchestrate’ the public media.”
Khumalo declined to comment on Rasnick’s letter, saying: “Rasnick is an American citizen. His association with the president relates to his work in the [Aids] advisory council [only].”
It is known, however, that some ANC leaders share a similar theory that Mbeki is the victim of a campaign orchestrated by pharmaceutical giants who regard him as an impediment to the accumulation of vast profits from Aids drugs. Rumours have been spread that South Africa’s Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), a fierce critic of the government’s reluctance to make anti-retrovirals available, is funded by multinational pharmaceuticals. TAC has denied this.
But a TAC member organisation, the National Association of People Living with HIV/Aids (Napwa), confirmed this week that it is seeking funding from the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association (PMA), which represented pharmaceutical companies in last month’s court battle with the government over the accessibility of cheap medicine.
Napwa national director Nkululeko Nxesi this week said his organisation had long relied on funding from the Department of Health, but that was not enough. It would appreciate funding from the private sector, including the PMA.
Nxesi said Napwa had opened a clinic in Germiston for people living with HIV/Aids, and needed funding and drugs. “We cannot sit and see our people die … We are sick and tired of these [Aids dissident] theories. We believe that anti-retrovirals do work.”
The Mail & Guardian understands that Napwa approached the PMA late last month for R1,5-million funding.