Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille has urged South African Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang to “stop scratching around the vegetable patch” and go and see HIV/Aids patients in hospitals.
Speaking in the debate on Tuesday on President Thabo Mbeki’s State of the Nation address, de Lille made reference to Tshabalala-Msimang’s suggestions that such things as garlic and African potatoes were important in fighting disease.
De Lille, who crossed the floor from the Pan Africanist Congress to the new Independent Democrats last year, challenged the government to follow the dictates of the constitution. She has been at the forefront of the campaign to provide anti-retrovirals (ARVs) to victims of HIV-Aids.
She argued that the government had undermined the rights of people — in terms of the constitution — as far as the Treatment Action Campaign’s drive to provide ARVs was concerned, as well as the land claims of the people of Richtersveld.
De Lille, who has also worked hard in campaigning for the rights of Aids babies, said she was nevertheless “extremely grateful for the power of the constitutional court for holding the government to account,” she said. But she was concerned that people who had helped to forge the document were now violating the constitution.
Referring to President Thabo Mbeki’s call that she be called to parliament to account for claims that some of his ministers — including Justice Minister Penuell Maduna — was an apartheid spy, she said she would welcome this. “I challenge this house to do exactly that. I really question the understanding of the parliamentary process.”
De Lille made the allegations during the first democratic parliament. – I-Net Bridge