November 10, 2006 Edition 1
Boyd Webb
Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge is to continue to speak on HIV/Aids - even when the minister is back from sick leave.
This was revealed yesterday by government spokesperson Thema Maseko.
However, he denied reports that Manto Tshabalala-Msimang had effectively been usurped as spokesperson on HIV and Aids by her deputy.
Madlala-Routledge was merely standing in for her.
Maseko was not sure when the minister would return to work.
Sixty-six-year-old Tshabalala-Msimang has been the minister of health since 1999.
The Star reported in September that Tshabalala-Msimang had effectively gagged her deputy from speaking on Aids over differences they had about the pandemic.
"Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang is still minister of health, and part of her responsibility is the implementation of the comprehensive plan on HIV and Aids," Maseko said at a post-cabinet briefing.
"We are not creating an alternative Department of Health focusing on HIV and Aids.
"The reason you have seen the deputy minister of health in the foreground has been largely because the minister has been sick."
Tshabalala-Msimang is blamed by many for the acrimonious relationship that exists between civil society, health NGOs and the government.
Her deputy - popular with organisations like the Treatment Action Campaign - is known to hold vastly different views on how the government should be dealing with the pandemic.
Tshabalala-Msimang's absence has been described by various organisations as a boon for the TAC and its relationship with government.
The TAC says it has finally acquired some of the political leadership it was seeking after years of clashing with the minister.
This comes after consultations with Madlala-Routledge and Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, who heads the newly formed Inter Ministerial Committee on HIV/Aids and the South African National Aids Council.
The two women have been meeting with a host of NGOs and civil society in a bid to improve relations and develop a combined plan to fight the disease.
Maseko said the meetings with the TAC were not clandestine, as certain media reports had claimed.
Relations have improved to such an extent that the TAC on Wednesday reportedly agreed to an out-of-court settlement with the government regarding a case it brought jointly with 15 prisoners and the Aids Law Project to force the state to provide antiretrovirals to prisoners.
Maseko welcomed the TAC's decision.
"It's a clear indication that in fact the tide is turning on the part of all stakeholders involved in the fight against HIV and Aids."
He said the government would continue to interact with TAC and all other players "to make sure that we accelerate our efforts to fight against this pandemic".