Pretoria | Thursday
THE government on Wednesday said it was not deliberately delaying the release of the Medical Research Council’s (MRC) report on Aids mortality in South Africa.
”The MRC report is not a government report and therefore the unfounded allegations in the media implying deliberate attempts on the part of government to delay the release of this report are inaccurate.
”Government cannot release a report that it does not own,” Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, Arts, Culture, Science and Technology Minister Ben Ngubane and Minister in the President’s Office Essop Pahad said in a joint statement.
The document, which has been leaked to several newspapers, apparently confirms that Aids is the country’s leading killer.
The MRC had hoped to release the report last week, but this was delayed after various government departments said they had not been briefed properly on the paper.
Various groups have accused the government of delaying the report as it could prove embarrassing to President Thabo Mbeki, who recently urged a rethink on social spending on the grounds that the impact of the disease had been exaggerated.
Ngubane, Tshabalala-Msimang and Pahad have been tasked by the Cabinet to deal with the HIV/Aids issue.
The MRC was not available for comment. – Sapa