South African Party Now Says AIDS to Top Its Agenda

The African National Congress, South Africa's ruling party, put AIDS at the top of its development agenda in a statement delivered at a party conference in the university town of Stellenbosch. The move represents a policy shift after what detractors claim has been years of neglect of the deadly pandemic. President Thabo Mbeki has come in for international criticism by publicly questioning the scientific link between HIV and AIDS.

The ANC said it was readying a comprehensive battle plan to fight the disease, which infects almost 5 million South Africans, or one person in nine. However, Mbeki, elected this week to lead the ANC for another five years, made only slight reference to AIDS in his keynote address to the conference, and suggested that TB was a more serious problem.

Joel Netshitenzhe, chief government spokesperson, assured reporters that the ANC realized the AIDS problem had ballooned since the last party conference in 1997. He said the ANC would have an "appropriate resolution" on the AIDS problem by the time the conference closed Friday.

Kgolema Motlanthe, ANC secretary-general, said the ANC envisioned a multiple strategy including AIDS drugs and measures to alleviate poverty. In the past, the government has dragged its heels on providing antiretroviral drugs through public hospitals, arguing that they were expensive, unproven, and toxic. Recent pilot programs showing that such drugs can dramatically improve AIDS patients' health may have helped influence the party's new commitment to anti-AIDS activism. South Africa has the world's highest single-country AIDS caseload, and AIDS has become increasingly visible as a social, political and economic problem.

Despite the ANC's promise of a new stance, an article in the British Guardian caused some to doubt the government's intentions. The piece quoted Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang as saying South Africa could not afford AIDS drugs because it needs the money to defend itself against potential aggressors, including the United States. She vehemently denied the report on Thursday, calling it "bizarre" and "distorted," and saying she never suggested that the United States could invade South Africa.

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