SA president's AIDS comment stirs up the ire of activists

Shock outrage erupted across South Africa Saturday in response to President Thabo Mbeki's denial that he knew anyone with AIDS.

"Personally, I don't know anybody who has died of AIDS," Mbeki told The New York Times while at the UN General Assembly last week.

Asked he knew anyone who was HIV-positive, he responded, "I really, honestly, don't know."

This sparked fury in South Africa where an estimated five million are infected with HIV -- more than one in 10 of the 45 million population. Critics accused Mbeki of dishonesty and demanded an apology to a nation where, every day, 600 die of AIDS and 250 babies are born with HIV.

Mbeki's spokesman, Parks Mankahlana, died two years ago after being diagnosed HIV-positive. Other prominent members of Mbeki's African National Congress (ANC) party have also died of AIDS, including Peter Mokaba, leader of the party's youth wing.

For years Mbeki has refused to accept that HIV causes AIDS and his government has delayed making available cheap antiretroviral drugs that would save millions of lives. Last month the government reversed its opposition to the drugs and later this month it is due to unveil a program to make them available.

Last week, a survey showed AIDS-related disability claims in the South African workforce have risen from 18 percent of total disability claims in 2001 to 31 percent last year.

"This is the most obvious tangible evidence of the impact of HIV/AIDS in the workplace," said Sean Jelley, chief executive of Lifeworks, which conducted the survey.

"As HIV-positive employees progress to the symptomatic stages of the disease leading rapidly to total incapacity and then death, the number of disability and death payouts will increase," he warned.

Despite the evidence, Mbeki persists in his denial and has again missed a priceless opportunity to acknowledge the problem and help lift the stigma surrounding AIDS.

"He should apologise to the nation," Mike Waters, spokesman on HIV/AIDS for the opposition Democratic Alliance, said.