AIDS Reappraisal Document
During this conference, an anonymously-authored document, titled Castro Hlongwane, Caravans, Cats, Geese, Foot & Mouth and Statistics: HIV/Aids and the Struggle for the Humanisation of the African, was distributed to party members, alleging that presidential spokesperson Parks Mankahlana and AIDS/HIV icon Nkosi Johnson had died because of consumption of antiretrovirals. The paper was derided by ANC member Dr. Saadiq Kariem as "ludicrous", and international criticism of the stance eventually forced Mbeki to back off from his public stance on AIDS reappraisal.
In 2007, a biography on Mbeki mentioned the author's secret contact with the president during the writing of the biography. Mbeki admitted to the authorship of the document and also confided his feelings on why he had assumed his position on AIDS and HIV in the first place.
Read more about this topic: 51st National Conference Of The African National Congress
Famous quotes containing the words aids and/or document:
“From the point of view of the pharmaceutical industry, the AIDS problem has already been solved. After all, we already have a drug which can be sold at the incredible price of $8,000 an annual dose, and which has the added virtue of not diminishing the market by actually curing anyone.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)
“... research is never completed ... Around the corner lurks another possibility of interview, another book to read, a courthouse to explore, a document to verify.”
—Catherine Drinker Bowen (1897–1973)