Dying+of+Politics,+Andrew+Feinstein,+The+Star



='Dying of Politics'=

The Star, 29 October 2007
//In this extract from his newly published memoir, former ANC MP// **Andrew Feinstein** //shares an insider's view of the president's dissident take on Aids and antiretrovirals//

In a wonderful irony of history, the ANC parliamentary caucus meets in what was the debating chamber of the old apartheid parliament. The leader of the ANC, of the country, occupies the seat of the former apartheid leaders, the seat in which Hendrik Verwoerd - the architect of apartheid - was stabbed to death by Dimitri Tsafendas. The Chamber itself draws its inspiration from the Mother of All Parliaments, with faded green leather benches, dark panelled wood tables and a web of thin, hanging microphones that pick up every word, sigh, jeer and cheer.

During the Mandela years the caucus room resonated with sharp debate and discussion, passionate argument and profound polemic, the discourse that characterised the ANC and the internal resistance movement, a broad church all of whose congregants felt able to speak their mind and argue their view. On 28 September 2000, two years after Thabo Mbeki had assumed the leadership of the ANC, the caucus reflected a more disciplined, choreographed and constrained party, a party fearful of its leader, conscious of his power to make or break careers, conscious of his demand for loyalty, for conformity of thinking.

Two days before this caucus Mbeki had seemed to end two years of bitter controversy by announcing - under constant pressure from the international media on his foreign sojourns - that he was withdrawing from the public debate on the science of HIV and Aids, a debate he had brazenly stepped into, fuelled by his views that HIV did not necessarily cause Aids, contrary to the vast, vast majority of scientific and public health thinking.

This denialism had cast a fatal shadow over the provision of treatment to the ever-growing millions of HIV-positive South Africans and had prevented the clear, coherent public education that was needed to stem the inexorable spread of the virus. However, a number of us in caucus, ashamed and embarrassed by our failure to speak up, believed that at last the opportunity was upon us to have our say. Indications were that the president had seen the deadly impact his denialism was having and was about to lead us back to the moral high ground.

The chairperson of caucus, Thabang Makwetla, invited "comrade President" to address us on this crucial issue. Mbeki stood up and shifted a little to the side of Verwoerd's execution chair. The caucus was silent, in anticipation. The following are the notes I took at the time on my Psion mini computer:

(He is looking terrible. Rheumy eyes. Quite nervous and fidgety.)

"We haven't spent enough time discussing issues of transformation.

"These issues are about changes that are a threat to the established order. Those who want to protect the old order will see SA as a problem and want to undermine us."

On Aids: the Uganda conference (attended by about 60 dissident scientists) agreed that nonsense was spoken about Uganda and its "success". He quoted from a conference document on HIV and Aids. "Vaccines give rise to other diseases."

"The international panel has decided to carry out experiments for HIV isolation, because the question is unresolved. They also want to know what the HIV testing kits actually test. Montagnier and his US counterpart didn't isolate the virus.

"There is a huge amount of literature on these issues that we must read so that when we are bombarded with huge propaganda we can respond.

"If we say HIV equals AIDS then we must say, equals drugs. Pharmaceutical companies want to sell drugs which they can't do unless HIV causes Aids, so they don't want this thesis to be attacked. That's one problem.

"The other one is the international political environment where the CIA has got involved. So, the US says we will give loans to Africa to pay for US drugs.

"As the conference in Uganda said, there are all sorts of other things that cause immune deficiency (starvation, poverty, etc). The US denies this because their companies need it to be a virus." He repeated figures on the main killers in Africa: respiratory, then malaria. "Only 10% died of Aids. Why focus on the 10% and not on the 90%. It's absurd."

A few comrades cheered. It was clear that he was not recanting.

He might have withdrawn from the public debate but, within the family of the ruling party, he was sticking to, further entrenching, his views in a web of conspiracy theory and fabrication that was an insult to his intellect.

I felt my stomach hollow, my cheeks redden, my mind was swirling. Surrounded by comrades of this organisation of which I was so proud, I realised that what was being said was nothing less than a continued death sentence for those babies born to HIV-positive women, for those South Africans who had contracted HIV but were too poor to afford the medicines to stay alive. I forced myself to refocus on what the president was saying, feeling that this was so much more important than all the other megabytes of notes I assiduously took in meetings. He continued:

"What do we do about orphans? We can't chase them away if they are not orphaned by Aids. We have allowed ourselves to be led by the pharmaceutical companies …

"People are working on where this campaign is coming from. The British press describe the SA president as 'deranged'.

"The Treatment Action Campaign is leading the statements and vitriol against one (I was always struck by, and uncomfortable with, his pompous use of 'one' when referring to himself). They are funded by pharmaceutical companies in the US. They also say they can't just dismiss Mbeki's views.

"The drug manufacturers must give scientific proof which will take 18 to 24 months.

"One of the major pharmaceutical companies told me that they've spent billions researching a vaccine but have given up because they can't find the virus. Meanwhile their website says by the end of 2000 they will have a vaccine, because if they didn't their shares would collapse.

"An article in the Sunday Tribune in late July made clear that health objectives won't be pursued if they clash with profits. So this is a revolutionary struggle for cures to TB, etc.

"As against people who make profit on the basis of ill-health …

"We have these challenges which comrades have now understood. The Treatment Action Group [sic] has a campaign to get doctors to write to papers, to identify unionists etc to speak out. Comrades must understand what these people are doing. We mustn't be scared to take on a lobby that is too strong (when this is only about 10% of the deaths in Africa).

"'One' met with a church leader who said they are discussing what area to focus on. It will be poverty, racism, crime, new morality and health. What are we doing as the ANC to ensure we are empowered to deal with these issues, as the church is? These challenges on the movement are going to mount. We must be prepared to respond to these challenges and be aware of the links between the Aids agenda and the IMF agenda."

As the president took his seat cheers broke out, grew in volume, interspersed with cries of "Viva Thabo Viva". The psychosis of the crowd enveloped many of the 260 MPs crammed into the chamber. I was sweating profusely, pretending to type on to avoid meeting anyone's eye.


 * From: http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4099657**

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