Johannesburg — Peter Mokaba, part of the ANC's 2004 election team, says HIV has never been seen, but denies he is an AIDS dissident

I AM not an AIDS dissident," Peter Mokaba, former African National Congress (ANC) youth leader responds nonchalantly to a question. "I do not believe there are dissidents and orthodox in science.

"If you find that you are an orthodox or dissident, then you are no longer a scientist. You may just (as well) be a religious or superstitious person," he says.

In an interview with Business Day, Mokaba, a leading member of the Africanist group within the ANC heading the election team preparing for the 2004 general elections, claims that HIV has been made a black disease. "It's a new apartheid and it is racist."

Despite his controversial views about the disease, Mokaba believes that the government is on the right course in dealing with the pandemic ravaging South African communities.

"The ANC strategy and response is based on the assumption that HIV causes AIDS. It remains an assumption because there is still a serious scientific inquiry (taking place) by the presidential aids panel to resolve and prove this assumption true."

This includes, for instance, Mokaba's claim that HIV has never been isolated. Brushing aside the discovery and isolation of the virus in 1984, Mokaba insists: "It has never been seen.

"That is why both the orthodox and dissidents have come to a conclusion, in the presidential AIDS panel, that we need to do work and experiments to isolate this HIV. They have proposed to have this particular investigation.

"They ask the follow-up question: what is it that we have been testing because the virus has never been seen?' There isn't today a single test for HIV. All the tests that are there look for the presence of antibodies (and) these antibodies could be produced by more than 70 conditions. They are not virus specific."

In an attempt to back his point, Mokaba says even the manufacturers of the test kits admit with a disclaimer that the "kits are not meant to identify the presence or absence of HIV".

Asked if these views are shared by the president, Mokaba says people are trying to find a difference between "what I am saying and what the ANC is saying. We are no different. The ANC relies on the assumption which simply says that these matters have not been scientifically proven. I am simply giving the detail."

Mokaba then makes a revealing statement which indicates that the controversial line by the government is not only about efficacy and affordability of AIDS drugs. He alleges that the Americans and the French are fighting for the markets to sell antiretrovirals because they struck an agreement in the 80s to share the benefits if the virus was discovered by scientists.

"Based on the assumption that it exists, they developed a massive industry to produce antiretrovirals ... now they are retreating from that investigation of looking for HIV because all of them agree that they could not find this thing after 20 years. The problem is that they have produced the antiretrovirals and want them to be consumed in the developing world."

Mokaba says the ANC would not be opposed to antiretrovirals if they were not so "dangerous".

"No one in this world has ever been cured by antiretrovirals ... They are protein terminators," he says. "Once anybody starts taking antiretrovirals, that person will (die) soon. These things are poisonous." He says people opposed to the government stance know that it has an effective AIDS prevention strategy in place.

"We agree that there is AIDS, but we know that it is caused by a number of factors, mainly oxidative stress. The majority of those conditions are poverty-related, which is the main killer in the developing world."

Mokaba says that to deal with this problem, the west, "which amassed wealth from us, should invest in our countries so that there could be economic growth and socioeconomic development. That is what our strategy means. Let's deal with all causes of immune suppression."

Their strategy, he says, is different. It says: "We are the ones who hold patents here. Collect your little resources through taxes and increase your deficit to come and buy these drugs for your people. This strategy represents a huge leakage of our resources to the west. The one we propose represents investment in fixed capital. That is the main battle."

He says the other issue angering the west is that the patents for the tablets dealing with other diseases, TB and meningitis grouped together as a syndrome, are expected to expire in two to three years. This would mean SA could produce the drugs in generic form without referring to the patents laws. "That is what they do not want," he says.

Mokaba is also critical of the way visiting international luminaries like former US president Jimmy Carter seem to harp on the single theme of antiretrovirals.

"America has never been so concerned about us being healthy ... they send this and that foundation to come and talk to us about taking tablets. We are saying no tablets and medication is prescribed without food. All medication is prescribed around food, and our people do not have food.

"So why don't we see delegations of Americans bringing in investment so that we can produce food for our people?"

On his reaction to the Constitutional Court's ruling which forced government to offer AIDS drug nevirapine in areas where it had the capacity, Mokaba says government will comply with the ruling. "The court raises only issues of capacity. We need a court case that raises the issue of science and the danger of antiretroviral drugs. We need to really pose the question whether something that is not scientifically true, can be made to be legally true? That is my view.

"The court case of government deals with capacity and the separation of powers. It is a good case. But I would have loved to see evidence produced in court to show this thing actually work."