Johannesburg
President Thabo Mbeki fired his deputy health minister this week, drawing fire from national and international AIDS activists. One of the only officials to publicly take an HIV test, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge was a vocal critic of what she called “AIDS denial” in the government. She was a fierce opponent of her boss, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who has advocated treating AIDS with garlic and beetroot rather than drugs, as well as of Mbeki, who has publicly denied that HIV infection leads to AIDS. In announcing Madlala-Routledge’s dismissal, Mbeki said the deputy minister had been insubordinate and had attended an AIDS conference abroad without his approval. AIDS kills about 1,000 South Africans every day.
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