Congress of the People (Cope) president Mosiuoa Lekota has described calls for former president Thabo Mbeki, and those who served under him, to be charged with genocide as an irresponsible and dangerous distortion of the history of the country, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Monday.
Lekota was responding to calls by the Young Communist League for Mbeki to be charged for his alleged mishandling of the HIV/Aids issue during his term of office.
He said for a crime of genocide to be committed there must be a deliberate policy or decision to kill people. He said there was no such decision, either by the African National Congress or Cabinet.
Lekota’s statement comes just a week after youth leader Julius Malema said the ANC Youth League would not allow Mbeki to be charged with genocide.
”We must never surrender our leaders,” said Malema at a gala dinner of the Pan African Youth Union at Emperor’s Palace in Boksburg last Monday.
”Thabo Mbeki might have made mistakes but we can never charge him.
”We must not charge one of our own. If we allow that, the same thing would happen to [Zimbabwean President Robert] Mugabe, and the same would happen to [President Jacob] Zuma, and the next thing you know they will come for you,” Malema said.
Grave concern
Earlier this month the South African Medical Association (Sama) said it was ”gravely concerned” about HIV/Aids statistics, which show a huge Aids-related leap in South Africa’s death rate.
”We have always been concerned on whether it is correct to wait with treatment until a person’s CD4 count has dropped to 200 [cells per microlitre]. We believe it might contribute to a higher mortality rate by delaying treatment,” Sama chairperson Norman Mabasa said in a statement.
The CD4 count is used to measure the strength of a person’s immune system.
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said earlier in November that in the 11 years from 1997 to 2008, the rate of death doubled in South Africa.
In 2007, the total number of deaths — from all causes — registered in South Africa was 573 408; in 2008 this figure had leapt to 756 062.
Motsoaledi pinned the blame for the current scale of the pandemic squarely on the denialist health policies pursued by former president Thabo Mbeki’s government.
”On the figures, it’s shocking. As to whether it has been affected by what we did in the past 10 years, to me that’s obvious,” he said.
”I don’t think we’d have been here if we’d approached the problem in a different way,” he said. ”It’s a really obvious question. Yes, our attitude toward HIV/Aids put us here where we are.” — Sapa