A prominent Aids dissident has attempted to use President Thabo Mbeki’s perceived ambivalence around HIV/Aids treatment to further the aims of the Rath Foundation, which promotes vitamins as an alternative to anti-retroviral (ARVs) drugs.
But the presidency dismisses out-of-hand claims by Anthony Brink that Mbeki instigated the creation of organisations which attack anti-retroviral drugs and aim to discredit activist groups critical of the government’s stance on the disease.
Brink, an official at the Rath Foundation, claims in a letter to a possible supporter, and in a forthcoming book, that Mbeki instigated the creation of the Treatment Information Group (TIG) to act as a counterweight to the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), which lobbies for wider availability of ARVs.
A statement from the president’s office said Mbeki has ”declare[d] his views on Aids and anti-retroviral treatment, and the claims in Advocate Brink’s document of secretive counter-mobilisation, intimate friendships and his special influence on the thinking of government leaders do not, we believe, deserve a response”.
In recent months Rath’s organisation has blitzed the print media with advertisements alleging the harmful effects of Aids drugs and attacking the TAC for ”forcing the government to spread disease and death”. Rath is a purveyor of multi-vitamin preparations for treating HIV/Aids.
The letter by Brink was written in March last year. It says that in 2003 Sam Mhlongo, another self-proclaimed dissident and head of family medicine at Medunsa, approached Brink confidentially to inform him that Mbeki ”desired the establishment of a dissident Aids activist organisation to serve as a counterweight to the TAC”.
The rival body’s primary function would be ”to act as a clearing house for the dissemination of information about the toxicity of ARVs and alternatives to the chemotherapeutic approach to Aids advocated by the TAC”.
Brink says that, as a result, the TIG was formed at a meeting in Johannesburg attended by himself, Mhlongo, another dissident Dr Roberto Giraldo and the speaker of the North West legislature, OJ Tselapedi.
”My proposal was keenly received and unanimously approved,” he adds.
Brink claims in his letter to be ”collaborating” with Mhlongo, a close friend of Mbeki who was appointed to the Presidential Advisory Committee set up in 2003 to settle the question of the causes of HIV/Aids, who also advised Health Minister Manto Tshabalala during the Constitutional Court case on nevirapine.
In his letter, Brink takes credit for advising Tshabalala-Msimang and claims he was consulted by the African National Congress. ”Acting covertly, I was closely involved in the nevirapine case brought by the TAC against the department, having been approached and consulted by the ruling party, the ANC, behind the scenes at the highest level.”
He said his involvement culminated in drawing up ”an urgent application on behalf of Mhlongo”.
Offering himself for employment by the foundation, Brink says he is capable of targeting journalists and news agencies with negative research data on the toxicity of Aids drugs and positive information about the benefits of nutritional approaches to Aids. ”I also have in mind to circulate embarrassing open letters to the pharmaceutical companies and their proxies, the TAC.”
Murphy Morobe, head of communications in the presidency, said the toxicity of ARVs is being dealt with. ”While government does recognise the dangers if ARVs are not used correctly, the systems we are putting in place, experience from other countries and our own private sector as well as the overall balance between the pros and cons convince us that we are on the right track.”
In the letter, Brink said he would target parliamentary committees and network with traditional healers and nutritional therapy advocates.
This week the National Association of People Living with Aids (Napwa), which receives health department funding — confirmed that the Rath Foundation had given them R16 000 for a conference. Napwa said it was fully supportive of the Rath Foundation’s anti-TAC stance and was forging a formal relationship with him. Last week the Mail & Guardian reported that the Rath Foundation had also funded civic organisations in Khayelitsha.
This week the health department said the minister gave no support to the Rath Foundation despite her citing the same drug trials the foundation uses in its advertising campaigns.