Professor Mbeki (PhD. www) secures a place in historys Hall of Shame NO blows BARRED Sipho Seepe Great leaders “make the times” by delighting us with new insights and perspectives. Their profound insights, often beyond our comprehension, advance thought and influence subsequent thinking. The likes of Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Karl Marx, Malcom X and Karl Popper come to mind. Others are “made by the times” by rising to the great challenges and crises of their time. Closer examples are Stephen Bantu Biko, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. Some are not only “made by the times”, they also “made the times”. In our times and in this place, the HIV-Aids epidemic is the greatest challenge. It is unprecedented in medical history. It does not recognise any artificial or natural boundaries be it race, colour, class, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, social origin and social standing. The fact that the virus mutates rapidly makes it exceedingly complex. This threat has invited all sorts of gurus who are prepared to proffer solutions. It has united people who would normally not find common cause with each other. It has also brought into sharp focus the debates around science and democracy. Carefully handled, these debates had the potential of transforming our society into a theatre of scientific and intellectual experiments. The debates would have explored the feasibility of incorporating indigenous knowledge within the mainstream scientific and medical systems. Unfortunately, the present debates championed by Professor Thabo Mbeki (PhD. www), that instant graduate of the Internet Medical School, have not offered any new insight. Neither have they advanced our understanding. If anything, South Africa has become, at government level, a purveyor and compost heap of discredited ideas. The learned Mbeki remains impervious to the huge body of scientific evidence that speaks to the causal relationship between HIV and Aids. His crude foray into medical science la “a virus cannot cause a syndrome” and “a syndrome is a collection of diseases” exposes his dangerously limited medical knowledge. His penchant to misquote, distort and to misrepresent scientific reports and texts underscore both his intellectual dishonesty and bankruptcy. Having failed to initiate a creative debate on science and democracy, these debates have, instead, exposed major flaws in our understanding of democracy. There is a general lack of appreciation of the link between democracy and freedom of expression, and democracy and development. When challenged, the ruling elite resorts to name calling and/or appeals to race. Loyalty to party bosses counts more than telling the truth or saving lives. Even established leaders those outspoken on issues such as police abuse, housing and job discrimination, and racism in society conveniently hide behind what they refer to as “internal debates” when it comes to HIV/Aids. Some of our best minds place themselves at the service of protecting the brittle and easily bruised ego of the learned Mbeki. Some have the gall to glorify their spinelessness by suggesting that their silence reflects a commitment to a higher cause. What gobbledegook! Regarding this pathetically gutless leadership, African-American scholar Cornell West writes in Race Matters: “Present day black political leaders appear too hungry for status to be angry, too eager for acceptance to be bold, too self-invested in advancement to be defiant. And when they drop their masks and try to get mad, their bold rhetoric is more performance than personal, more play-acting than heartfelt.” The ruling elites indifference to human suffering has since spurred into action community organisations, unions, concerned citizens and religious leaders. Hopefully this will usher in authentic “new cadres” to challenge a leadership that has become too comfortable to concern itself with the plight of the poor. Ironically, what began as pseudo-scientific debates between Mbeki and the scientific community has become a battle between the African National Congress government and the people of South Africa. It does not escape the attention of anti-Aids activists that the very same government that claims to care would rather purchase weapons of destruction for an imaginary war than make available enough resources to save babies. The government refuses to provide anti-retroviral drugs to stem mother-to-child transmissions but can easily commit R600-million on a jet for the presidents travelling comfort. Perhaps nothing more vividly captures its aloofness to human suffering than Mbekis failure to pay a symbolic visit to young Nkosi Johnson on his deathbed. This is despite (to spite would be correct) societal expectation and the express wishes of the frail little boy. Such is the callousness of the Mbeki government. Yet it has the temerity to tell the world and us that it cares! While ANC members take to the street at the slightest provocation to protest against the abuse of women, the same members condone acts that entrench male denigration of women by their leaders. Not a whimper of protest was heard from ANC quarters when Mbeki rudely shoved Winnie Madikela-Mandela aside in front of young people. Although eager to protest against the escalation of infant rape, they refuse to appreciate that this may be a consequence of the public confusion generated by Mbekis misguided views on causation and treatment of the HIV/Aids epidemic. Hopefully, the latest criticism of Mbekis mishandling of the epidemic by Desmond Tutu and former president Nelson Mandela will add impetus, if belated, to the growing peoples movement on Aids. Not mincing his words, Tutu warned: “It is silly to hold on to positions that are untenable. We have to identify people especially in the medical sciences who will prescribe a course of action that we will take medically and that we will follow with military precision. Yes, this means the use of Nevirapine if that is what is available. It is irresponsible of us not to save lives that we could save.” His book No future without forgiveness provides insight as to why Tutu refers to Aids as the new apartheid: “When Dr Verwoerd was asked why he had ended [a fairly] cheap but effective way of combating malnutrition among the poorest sections of the population, he said that if you could not feed all, then you should not feed any. That surely takes the cake. Why dont we try to cure those people suffering from TB? No, we wont do it because we really must not try to treat some TB patients unless we can treat them all. It was possible to spew forth such arrant nonsense because the victims had no political leverage.” The same irrationality and perverse logic informs the governments approach to the epidemic. In presiding over the suffering and deaths of millions of South Africans, Professor Mbeki earns himself a prominent place in historys Hall of Shame.