Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has moved to prevent members of the African National Congress’s health secretariat from attending the party’s national conference next week in their capacity as the organisation’s health experts.
Party insiders say Tshabalala-Msimang turned down approaches by the three secretariat members — deputy chairperson Dr Confidence Moloko, secretary Dr Sadiq Kariem and coordinator Amod Dhai — to sanction applications for accreditation.
The three are apparently trying to get accreditation through their ANC branches. All subscribe to the orthodox stance on HIV/Aids and its treatment. Their vocal rejection of the ANC’s official stance during the Aids controversy soured relations between them and Tshabalala-Msimang.
Moloko and Kariem were instrumental in drawing up a discussion document addressed to President Thabo Mbeki last year recommending that the ANC recognise mistakes made in its handling of the HIV/Aids epidemic.
Kariem, the party’s health spokesperson, refused to confirm or deny
that Tshabalala-Msimang had refused to sanction their applications.
”It is the minister’s prerogative to decide who to send to the conference,” he said. ”As members of the secretariat our role at the conference would have been to provide technical advice to the party on its health policy for the next four years.”
Tshabalala-Msimang’s spokesperson Sibani Mngadi said the minister was not responsible for approving anyone’s attendance at the national conference. ”Any ANC member can apply for accreditation through the head office.”
Donovan Cloete, a party spokesperson at the Luthuli House headquarters, said that because of a shortage of space a limited number of representatives from the party’s sub-committees could attend the conference. ”This applies to all the sub-committees and not just the health secretariat. We have sent out invitations to all the subcommittees and the health secretariat and then they apply for accreditation.”
The health sector is a critical element of the conference’s ”commission on social transformation”. The draft discussion papers on social transformation deals at length with shortages in the comprehensive health-care plan in the country. It also deals at length with the challenge posed to the health system by HIV/Aids.
Spokesperson for the Aids Consortium Sharon Ekambaram said the consortium hoped the ANC and Tshabalala-Msimang would endorse the national treatment and prevention plan on HIV/Aids, compiled under the auspices of the National Economic and Development Labour Council. The government and business have yet to sign the agreement.