Johannesburg — "Minister, you blundered", "An embarrassment", "Aids Rocks ANC", "ANC in turmoil over HIV-Aids", "Gauteng Aids plan sparks ANC rift", "Uneasy peace over HIV/Aids policy shattered", Countdown to confusion". Those are the headlines dominating South Africas leading newspapers Wednesday.
The rift is between South Africas health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and the premier of Gauteng province, Mbhazima Sam Shilowa, over Aids treatment. It is the talk of the town.
Gauteng includes both the capital, Pretoria, and the commercial centre, Johannesburg. The province is a politically powerful demographic slice of the nation. Shilowa is an influential man in South Africa and a respected member of the governing African National Congress (ANC).
Shilowa's announcement Monday - that all hospitals and major health centres in his province would, within a year, offer Nevirapine to HIV positive pregnant women to reduce the risk of transmission of the virus to their new born babies - has been hailed by the man and woman in the street, Aids lobbyists and opposition politicians. The news has received almost universal support in South Africa.
But the health minister is neither pleased nor impressed. Tshabalala-Msimang rejected the Gauteng governments plan to provide Nevirapine to HIV positive pregnant women, and issued a public statement, Tuesday, saying the premiers announcement contradicted national government policy on HIV/Aids. The minister called Shilowas proposed programme a breach of an executive agreement.
The Gauteng premier is sticking to his guns. Shilowas spokesman said Wednesday that the premier hoped to organise a meeting with the health minister to clear up the matter.
Others have been less forgiving and more critical of Tshabalala-Msimang. The minister's intervention has been called meddlesome, unnecessary, embarrassing and ill-informed. Gauteng newspaper The Stardescribed her as standing alone "like a reed in a storm".
The row comes after President Thabo Mbekis state-of-the-nation address two weeks ago which appeared to clear up the confusion on Aids that the South African leader himself had caused in the past, by questioning the link between HIV and Aids.
A study released by the Medical Research Council late last year reported that Aids could kill up to 7m South Africans by 2010, unless there was more effective government action.
Mbeki told South Africans his government would "monitor anti-retrovirals in sites already operational and any new ones that may be decided upon." In what was widely perceived as a concession to public fury and pressure, Mbeki implied that provinces ready with the infrastructure and know-how could press ahead.
Tshabalala-Msimangs statement appears to contradict the position of her own party, the ANC, and the president that the provision of Nevirapine for HIV pregnant women should continue at test sites.
Mbekis predecessor, Nelson Mandela, who remains a loyal member of the ANC, stepped into the fray at the weekend. The former South African president was reported in the Johannesburg Sunday Times newspaper as saying the debate on HIV and Aids should end: "This is war. It has killed more people than has been the case in all previous wars and in all previous natural disasters. We must not continue to be debating, to be arguing, when people are dying, " Mandela is quoted as saying, in his strongest criticism to date of Mbekis governments apparent reluctance to deal with the urgent problem of HIV/Aids. Mandela called on the authorities to make Nevirapine available to pregnant women who were HIV positive.
"I have no doubt that we have a reasonable and intelligent government and that, if we intensify this debate inside, they will be able to resolve it" said the former South African leader, adding that he would be consulting the ANC leadership.
As a guest on local 702 Talk Radio on Tuesday, though, Mandela appeared to back pedal on statements earlier attributed to him, by saying the South African governments handling of the HIV/Aids issue was the "best in the world" and that the governments only weakness was that "they are not communicating" their policies.
He told 702 that, after his discussions with Mbeki, vice-president Jacob Zuma and other top ANC officials on Monday, he would no longer discuss HIV/Aids without first consulting his party. But Mandela did repeat that "the debate must stop and people must be treated. I was not criticising the government. I was talking about the debate and was calling on everybody to try and agree on how Aids should have been treated, instead of having what, in my view, without being briefed, was an unnecessary debate."
But the genie is out of the bottle. Mandelas initial comments, quoted in the Sunday Times, have struck a chord with many South Africans who feel their government is out of step on HIV/Aids and not doing enough, fast enough. They have praised the Gauteng premier for breaking ranks.
The statement by the Health Minister on Tuesday has enraged people even more, who cannot understand why their compatriots, including babies, affected by or living with HIV/Aids in South Africa should not have immediate access to drugs that could prolong their lives.
The governments trade union partner, Cosatu, the influential Congress of South African Trade Unions, called Tshabalala-Msimangs decision to criticise Gautengs anti-retroviral drugs policy an "embarrassment". The labour federation, which is in alliance with the ANC and the South African Communist Party, SACP, said Cosatu was "shocked and disappointed at the ministers statement that seeks to condemn a move that, only yesterday gave HIV-positive mothers hope in Gauteng. The federation condemns the ministers stance and attitude. She should know that the time for politicising the issue of Nevirapine and anti-retroviral drugs is over."
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
The Communist Party said it was "dismayed" by the ministers statement and accused her of "the hesitancy, prevarication and lack of decisive leadership" that characterised the governments policy on "HIV/Aids in general and the prevention of mother-to-child transmission in particular."
The SACP called for a "full discussion" between the government, Cosatu and the Communist Party alliance on HIV/Aids.
One glimmer of hope came Wednesday in the budget statement by South Africas finance minister, Trevor Manuel, who acknowledged the scale of the Aids scourge. He announced that an extra 4.1 billion rand (US$357m) would be spent over the next three years on the fight against Aids.
"The budget contains significant measures to strengthen the national HIV/Aids programme," said Manuel, presenting his budget to parliament. It was the first time budget documentation addressed Aids as a separate issue.
An additional R1bn rand (US$86m) will be allocated, over the next financial year, to provide and distribute 385 million condoms (an increase of 16 percent) as well as offering Aids education and counseling, Aids drugs for pregnant women and care for Aids sufferers.
Pensioners and children stand to benefit from social grants of up to R2bn (US$172m) to help vulnerable groups worst hit by the spread of Aids in South Africa.
