Patricia de Lille, a long-standing member of Parliament and the leader
of the newly-formed Independent Democrats Party, threw down the
gauntlet to Mbeki, saying he needed to set an example to encourage
South Africans to undergo similar tests.
She said South Africa was turning a blind eye to the AIDS crisis as
she launched a ‘Know Your Status' drive at a major Johannesburg
hospital.
"The reason I am taking the test is because we are 10 years behind
from the rest of the world in terms of fighting the AIDS pandemic and
are still in denial", de Lille was quoted by the SAPA news agency as
saying.
"South Africa is in a denial phase, including business and
community-based organizations. The stigma attached to the diseases is
contributing to this state of affairs".
De Lille, a veteran trade union leader whose party is expected to pick
up less than five percent of the vote, said Mbeki needed to make a
personal stand to combat AIDS and HIV, affecting one in nine South
Africans.
"President Mbeki must illustrate by testing -- even if he does this
privately -- and positive spin-offs may come out of that
demonstration.
"Research has shown that those countries whose political leaders have
driven the HIV strategy have met the greatest success of reducing
infection rates", the feisty leader said.
The UNAIDS agency estimates that South Africa had 5.3 million people
infected with HIV and AIDS at the end of 2002 -- the highest ratio in
the world.
South Africa's cabinet approved in November the outline of a plan to
provide anti-retroviral drugs for those infected with HIV/AIDS after
the government lost several court battles with lobby groups seeking
free treatment for all sufferers.
The government has started to roll out AIDS treatment in three
provinces in the country, but the lobby groups have said more needs to
be done to treat the infected.
De Lille said South Africans could take preventive measures and save
their lives if they tested for AIDS immediately, adding that many
discovered they had the HIV virus when they were hospitalized for a
different infection.
"It is often too late because their immune systems are already too
weak to bounce back", she said. "Once one knows their status early,
they can go for treatment and change their lifestyle".
Mbeki's spokesman dismissed de Lille's challenge as an election
gimmick. "We are not interested in responding to these silly
shenanigans by Patricia de Lille. These are not meant for nothing
other than attracting votes", presidential spokesman Bheki Khumalo
said.
Apartheid-era pillars still tower
Whatever the result of the elections -- which, opinion polls suggest,
Mbeki and his African National Congress will win easily -- the
political landscape will continue to be dominated by three eminent
figures of the apartheid era.
Together they led South Africa through the end of apartheid and,
despite retirement, the grand triumvirate of Nelson Mandela, Desmond
Tutu and Frederik de Klerk continues to inspire.
Mandela, 85 and Tutu, 72 are among the few remaining pioneers of the
anti-apartheid struggle following the deaths of Walter Sisulu and
Govan Mbeki over the past years.
Mandela, who stepped down as South Africa's first black president in
1999, had repeatedly declared that he would opt for a humdrum
retirement growing vegetables and bouncing his many
great-grandchildren on his knee.
Yet, it has been anything but. His third wife Graca Machel, whom he
married at 80, rightly predicted that he would never rest as he was
too much of a "political animal".
A world icon of reconciliation, in the words of Tutu, the former
leader has acted as a mediator in war-torn Burundi and has been called
upon to take on peace-making roles in the Middle East and Kashmir.
Unwaveringly loyal to his party, the African National Congress (ANC),
Mandela however does not hesitate to freely air his views over
controversial issues like his successor's failure to respond to the
AIDS pandemic or corruption in the ranks of the new black elite.
Mandela has also described George W. Bush as a "a president who can't
think properly" for unleashing a war on Iraq and was joined in his
criticism by Tutu who termed the war as "unjustifiable, immoral and
evil".
Tutu, the former Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, widely regarded as
the "conscience" of the anti-apartheid struggle, was the soul of the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which sought to heal the wounds
of apartheid through testimony and amnesty.
Like Mandela, Tutu, who suffered from a near-fatal bout of prostate
cancer in 1996, has not hesitated to speak out against the new order
when he felt things were going awry.
The government's late response to AIDS led Tutu to compare the
leadership with the Emperor Nero, saying, "We can't afford to be
fiddling as our particular Rome burns".
Tutu has also been a vocal critic of Zimbabwe's President Robert
Mugabe, whose regime he has described as "oppressive and
undemocratic", in strong contrast to President Thabo Mbeki's refusal
to confront the authoritarian leader in Harare.
Mandela also once famously told Mugabe, a hero in Zimbabwe's
independence struggle, should quit, saying, "Look, you have been in
office for 20 years, it's time to step down".
Like Mandela and Tutu, de Klerk, South Africa's last white president,
has a Nobel Prize and a foundation doing humanitarian work as well as
a busy schedule as a sought-after speaker on the international
circuit.
The last apartheid president, who freed Mandela and lifted a ban on
the ANC, is delivering a positive message about the future of the
country, inviting whites to contribute to the building of the new
South Africa. "We will continue to keep the miracle alive", de Klerk,
68, said recently.
De Klerk also endeared himself to South Africans following the brutal
rape and murder in 2001 of his former wife Marike, when he gave moving
testimony during the murder trial.
He is now a member of the Global Leadership Foundation, a group made
up of former leaders offering support and advice to presidents and
prime ministers around the world, especially in developing countries.
Mandela basks in international adulation, Tutu is busy with teaching
assignments at England's Cambridge University, while de Klerk is
sought after for his advice on coping with change.
Together, the main players of the South African ‘miracle', have earned
their place in history.
