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Cape Times and Star 20/02/2002

You're an embarrassment, Cosatu tells Manto

By John Battersby

The trade union federation, Cosatu, has come out in full support of Gauteng
Premier Mbhazima Shilowa in the escalating war of words with Health Minister
Manto Tshabalala-Msimang over the provision of antiretroviral drugs to
prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

In an angry statement released late on Tuesday, Cosatu expressed its "shock"
at Tshabalala-Msimang's attack on Shilowa over his decision to make the
antiretroviral, nevirapine, available to HIV-positive pregnant mothers
throughout the province.

"It is embarrassing that, in the background of yesterday's progressive
meeting between Nelson Mandela and President Thabo Mbeki, which gave hope on
the issue of HIV and Aids, minister Tshabalala-Msimang decided to come out
with such a bombshell.

There were no policy differences between the two leaders
"We view the minister's criticism of the premier of Gauteng today as a
stumbling block in a fight against the pandemic and a general reflection of
a lack of urgency in the matter," said Cosatu. "The federation condemns the
minister's stance and attitude. She should know that the time for
politicising the issue of nevirapine and antiretroviral drugs is over."

The unprecedented public row over the government's controversial handling of
the HIV and Aids pandemic followed a marathon meeting between President
Thabo Mbeki and former president Nelson Mandela at the African National
Congress's Luthuli House headquarters in Johannesburg.

Mandela declined to comment on Tuesday further on the HIV and Aids issue
until he had consulted with the ANC.

An ANC statement after the meeting said there were no policy differences
between the two leaders, but conceded that the ANC-led government needed to
improve on the communication of its HIV and Aids policies.

A well-placed source said both Mandela and Mbeki were keen to dispel the
notion that there was any personal animosity between them as a result of
strong differences of opinion over the approach to HIV and Aids.

'It is also high time the government comes clear on the matter'
The source said Mandela had telephoned President Mbeki on Sunday to assure
him that he had not used the words ascribed to him in quotation marks in a
headline in the Sunday Times: "Stop HIV/Aids nonsense."

Mbeki has also been at pains to dispel the notion that there is an
acrimonious relationship between the two leaders.

Shortly before the Mandela-Mbeki meeting on Monday, Shilowa announced that
all public hospitals in Gauteng would provide the anti-retroviral drug,
nevirapine, to HIV-positive pregnant women to prevent the transmission of
HIV from mother to child.

Shilowa, who according to senior ANC sources was acting with the backing of
the ANC leadership, said R30-million would be made available to finance the
programme which would be launched at seven hospitals in the next 100 days
and that all public hospitals would be provided with the drug by the end of
the current financial year.

Ayanda Ntsaluba, director-general of the national health department, came
out in full support of Shilowa's stand later on Monday.

But on Tuesday, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said Shilowa had
defied a resolution adopted by a national meeting of provincial MECs at a
meeting last month, which had decided to await the outcome a report on the
viability of nevirapine.

A government source said advisers had backed the decision to roll out the
provision of the drugs to pregnant mothers, following the high court ruling
in December brought by the Treatment Action Campaign which ordered
government to make nevirapine widely available to HIV-positive pregnant
women.

The advisers had argued at the time that there was no contradiction between
the government's appeal against the ruling, which sought to challenge the
right of the courts to decide matters of public policy, and the immediate
rolling out of antiretrovirals to prevent mother-to-child transmission of
the virus.

The Cosatu statement said it was high time that government listened to the
voice of the majority in South Africa. "It is also high time the government
comes clear on the matter and enhances last year's court victory against
international pharmaceutical giants," said the Cosatu statement, applauding
Shilowa's move.

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