Concerning:
A Brief Commentary on the Question of HIV and AIDS
and
Some Observations on HIV & Mortality in South Africa: 2007, 2008 & 2013
by Thabo Mbeki
Commencing in January 2016, former South African President Thabo Mbeki began letting the
wind out of some of the controversies of his presidency in a
series of articles published on his
Facebook page.
Journalists immediately began howling over the biggest of these, HIV-AIDS;
see REACTION below.
On 7 March Mbeki posted A Brief Commentary on the Question of HIV and AIDS (PDF).
And followed up the next day, by
posting
(PDF; link to a screenshot)
TIG general secretary
Chris Rawlins’s
analysis,
A critical analysis of the underlying assumptions
used by Chigwedere et al in their article “Estimating The Lost Benefits of
Antiretroviral Drug Use in South Africa” published in JAIDS in December 2008
(PDF, 75 KB),
tearing to shreds the Harvard paper relied on by ‘our friends, the friends
of the Africans’ to charge him with causing over 300 000 avoidable AIDS
deaths in South Africa for not sharing their (‘the friends of the Africans’)
enthusiasm for the drug industry’s HIV-ARV-AIDS project.
In his ‘Brief Commentary', Mbeki refers to
Castro Hlongwane ... HIV/AIDS and the Struggle for
the Humanisation of the African,
a paper he co-wrote for discussion by the ANC NEC in April 2002
(PDF; the link is to the expanded version, twice the size of the
original, which Mbeki gave biographer Mark Gevisser in June 2007).
In 'Castro Hlongwane', Mbeki addressed the core trouble with the HIV theory
of AIDS:
the 'HIV' isolation question
(PDF).
(In two interviews in 2000, Kgalema Motlanthe, Mbeki’s successor as
President for a few months,
very pertinently did so so too.)
On 9 March 2016, Rawlins published a short summary:
The irreconcilable contradictions between the HSRC's hiv statistics and
StatsSA's mortality data
(PDF).
See Rawlins's further analyses posted near the bottom of the
TIG homepage.
Citing more recent data published by the HSRC, MRC, StatsSA and ASSA, his
later papers update and strengthen the conclusions of his 2009 refutation of
the Chigwedere paper to which Mbeki referred in his 'Brief Commentary'.
On 11 March, Brink and Rawlins were interviewed on the SABC morning radio
programme SAfm about why Mbeki was right.
On 14 March, Mbeki published
Some Observations on HIV & Mortality in South
Africa: 2007, 2008 & 2013.
But misstepped the following day, 15 March, by
linking
on his Facebook page
(PDF)
a bad paper by Duesberg et al (promoting his harmless passenger virus story)
to refute the Chigwedere one -- already taken apart by Rawlins, whose
analysis he'd posted on the 8th (see above). Our friend Claus Jensen
shows how poor
the just-linked Duesberg paper is, and provides a
demolition of the Chigwedere paper of
his own
(PDF and 36).
On the 15th, Brink and Rawlins were interviewed supporting Mbeki by Kaya FM.
On the 20th, the Sunday Tribune published
Rawlins's
letter about all this
(PDF).
Two errors: The US Pepfar fund allocated more than 5 billion dollars, not rands.
And the Catholic Church has been spending up to 60 million rands annually on the
drugs, not R60,000. Source: Sr Alison Munro, Director of the Aids Office of the
Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference, page 27 of Catholic Responses to Aids
in Southern Africa, edited by her and Fr Stuart Bate.
REACTION
On 15 January, long before Mbeki got to deal with AIDS in his Monday
letters, an editorial in the Mail & Guardian told the former president to
just shut up.
Focusing on AIDS, cartoonist Zapiro accused Mbeki of dishonestly rewriting
history in his
cartoon in the Mail & Guardian on 22
January.
On 1 February the TAC's Nathan Geffen (now running his own outfit) told us
in the Daily Maverick that
Mbeki's reputation is not in tatters because he
was aloof; no, it's because he hasn't recanted on AIDS and
rejoined the believers.
On 4 March 2016, three days before Mbeki posted his ‘Brief Commentary’,
Katherine Furman expressed her dismay in Times LIVE over Mbeki’s reagitation
of the controversies of his presidency, in a pathetic stew of pop psychology
and half-baked philosophizing::
How Mbeki's character and his AIDS denialism are
intimately linked.
7
March
The Madness of King Mbeki, HIV/AIDS edition
--
Richard Poplak, Daily Maverick
Mbeki rekindles AIDS denialism debacle in letter
-- BDlive
Mbeki confirms he is an AIDS denialist
-- Nathan Geffen, Politicsweb
Cartoonist Zapiro portrays Mbeki as a mental case -- Mail & Guardian
Mbeki: I stand by my Aids statements
8
March
Mbeki is a highly educated fool, says HIV activist
Lucky Mazibuko
--
CapeTalk
Former South
African president criticized for AIDS comments
-- CTV News
Ramaphosa to brief on Aids plans — two days after
Mbeki denied ...
-- Rand Daily Mail
Motswaledi addresses Mbeki Aids denialism saga
-- Citizen
Mbeki deserves to be condemned by history, says
TAC -- Mia Malan, Mail & Guardian (in print ed.)
Mbeki still believes his own Aids propaganda
-- Kerry Cullinan, Health24
An open letter to Thabo Mbeki by a clinical
associate -- Health24
Zapiro portrays Mbeki as a mass killer -- TIMES LIVE
9
March
Mbeki was right about HIV and Aids – researchers
-- Mail & Guardian Online. But
censored it the next day: 'The M&G
removed this article (published on March 10 [sic: the 9th]) from its
website. By republishing a
News24 wire story on our home page, we
irresponsibly gave coverage to Aids denialists and the dangerous
misinformation they peddle. We have retracted this story and apologise for
the error.'
Mbeki was right about HIV and Aids - independent
researchers
-- Highly Cited-News24 (Note: Brink quotations garbled by the sub-editor)
Mbeki's Aids comments a distraction: Sanac
-- Independent Online
OPINION: Thabo Mbeki, The Unforgiven
-- Eyewitness News
Thabo Mbeki is a coward and his Aids denialism was
catastrophic - TAC -- Health24
10
March
Research body
responds to Mbeki’s letter on Aids
-- Bizcommunity.com
Mbeki is correct about HIV/Aids, say two local
Aids dissidents
-- BDlive
Thabo Mbeki
letter proves it was no mistake sacking him
-- Times LIVE
Mbeki should boldly face up to his HIV/AIDS
mistakes - SACP
-- Politicsweb
Mbeki's foot-in-mouth syndrome
-- Independent Online
Research body responds to Mbeki's letter on Aids
-- Bizcommunity.com
Thabo Mbeki was right, say HIV denialists
-- Sowetan LIVE
Mbeki is correct about HIV/Aids, say two local
Aids dissidents
-- The Zimbabwe Mail
11
March
No credibility as a researcher – a
letter to News24
-- Marcus Low, Daily Maverick
15 questions for Thabo Mbeki
-- Shaun de Waal, Mail & Guardian
Mbeki's opening up old wounds and hindering fight against HIV --
eNCA
Snub Mbeki like he did Nkosi -- Mail &
Guardian (in print ed.)
On Mbeki’s Brief Commentary -- Jonathan Berger, theconmag.co.za
Mbeki's opening up old wounds and hindering fight against HIV: activist -- EWN
12
March
Clearing up
two Mbeki misconceptions
-- Nathan Geffen, GroundUp
Mbeki’s
letter on HIV/AIDS a depressing political debate: Motsoaledi
-- South African Broadcasting Corporation
Mbeki’s ideas
on HIV/Aids should be buried
-- Independent Online
Why Mbeki’s
HIV views have no place in South Africa
-- Newsweek
Ex-South African President Mbeki Still Has His
'Bizarre' Beliefs on HIV and AIDS
-- Global Voices Online
Mbeki’s letter on HIV/AIDS a depressing political
debate: Motsoaledi
-- South African Broadcasting Corporation
Mbeki comes under fire for defending his stance on
Aids
-- Examiner Gazette
13
March
Op-Ed: Go back into the darkness, Mr Mbeki
--
Anso Thom,
Daily Maverick
Op-Ed: Coming to the aid of sex workers
--
Busani Ngcaweni and Fareed Abdullah,
Daily Maverick
14
March
Mbeki queries money spent treating HIV/AIDS
--
BDlive
AFRICA CHECK: Why Mbeki's HIV-related deaths claim
is misleading
--
Eyewitness News
Mbeki HIV argument gains support on Twitter
--
Citizen
Mbeki refuses to back down on 'dissident' HIV/Aids
stance
-- Times LIVE
Mbeki offers greater clarity on HIV/Aids
-- DestinyConnect
Mbeki puzzles over AIDS deaths despite ARVs
-- Citizen
Sometimes even urinal graffiti makes more sense
than Mbeki
-- Stephen Lewis, Daily Maverick
On the white AIDS denialists -- Pierre
de Vos, Constitutionally speaking blog
15 March
Groups choose to ignore Mbeki HIV letters -- Independent Online
20 March
Waiting for Zuptas' smoking gun -- Sunday Independent
21 March
Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma share one big weakness -- Rand Daily Mail
23 March
Health minister 'saddened' by Mbeki's views -- ENCA
See dozens of further examples of Galileo's observation:
'For very great is the number of the stupid'