Thabo Mbeki Faces Criticism Over Winnie Mandela Incident and Controversial HIV/AIDS Policies

Some have accused former South African president Thabo Mbeki of closing nursing schools, others have criticised his administration’s response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and still others have criticised his treatment of anti-apartheid campaigner Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

Using contentious instances from Mbeki’s presidency and the long-term effects of his administration’s policies, the critic questioned whether Mbeki should deserve compassion.

A national television broadcast of an event involving Madikizela-Mandela was one among the topics brought up. Mbeki shoved Madikizela-Mandela aside when she went up to him on stage at a Youth Day rally at Orlando Stadium, Soweto, on June 16, 2001.

This incident, which included two major players in South Africa’s political past, has remained in the public eye and has garnered a lot of attention.

It is impossible to forget what happened, the analyst said, and Mbeki was never held enough responsible for what he did to Madikizela-Mandela.

The high rate of young unemployment in South Africa was another important point brought forward. Allegations that nursing institutions were shuttered, restricting options for individuals seeking training in the healthcare field, were brought to the commentator’s attention as a result of past government policies that were allegedly responsible for some of the problems that young people are experiencing.

The argument that many young people still have trouble finding job while wanting to work and make a difference to society was another point of contention in the critique, which called into question the characterisation of the unemployed as unskilled.

To determine the extent to which Mbeki’s administration is responsible for the closure of nursing colleges, further evidence is needed to support the particular assertion that links him directly to the matter.

The criticism also focused on Mbeki’s approach to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

His administration’s handling of the HIV/AIDS epidemic was heavily criticised while he was in office. This was especially true of its refusal to acknowledge a causal relationship between the two diseases and its reluctance to speed up the process of increasing access to antiretroviral medications.

Medical professionals and HIV/AIDS campaigners criticised Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang for promoting dietary options that included beets, garlic and lemon. They emphasised that these measures could not substitute scientifically proven therapy.

There were challenges to the government’s strategy in the courts. The Constitutional Court of South Africa found in 2002 that the country’s regulations limiting access to the HIV prevention drug nevirapine were unconstitutional in light of the facts presented.

In 2003, the government finally gave the go-ahead for a nationwide antiretroviral treatment program to start in 2004.

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