The Legacy of Thabo Mbeki
Moegammad Kara, Political Strategist, Development Planner and Community leader, Stellenbosch
Recently, the legacy of Thabo Mbeki was again in the spotlight when he attended the ANC Free State renewal process. People always question the legacy of Thabo Mbeki. He was the elusive president that the media loved to hate.
The legacy issues are around his handling and alleged denialism of Aids, the current electricity crisis and managing the economy. The assessment of his legacy by journalists and analysts are still the same as their views during his tenure as president.
Thabo Mbeki was often and still called an Aids dissident. Is this a true reflection of his stance on the HIV/AIDS epidemic? I was twice personally present where journalist confronted him on whether he is an Aids dissident. Neither of these two journalists could point out where and when he said that he was an Aids sceptic.
This label of an Aids dissident is not factually correct. All people just assume that he was an Aids dissident because it appeared in the newspapers and other media outlets. The Thabo Mbeki legacy is totally dependent on this caricature that he is an Aids dissident without a shred of evidence.
This article will only focus on the alleged Aids denialism. HIV/AIDS is a lifestyle disease that became an epidemic the world over. The emphasis is that it is a lifestyle disease and people will get the disease by their own actions. When a lifestyle disease gets to epidemic proportions, it reflects the nature and the state of the people that are living in a country. It reflects the abhorrent nature of the society. It is a disease that is mainly spread by sexual intercourse. It reflects the irresponsibility of the people that are taking part in the sexual act by not taking precautionary measures. It also reflects the toxic masculinity that men will do what they want, by not using condoms or other precautionary measures.
The Gender Based Violence epidemic is also reflected in the epidemic of HIV/AIDS. It is commonly known that women are terrorised by men when it comes to sex. In many cases the virus is spread when women are raped. This is the nature of the South African society; therefore, it be not surprisingly at all the HIV/AIDS has become an epidemic in South Africa. This irresponsibility goes into the medication phase of the epidemic.
It is commonly known here in Stellenbosch that people are not taking the medication regularly and not even pitching up to fetch their medication. Many people in Stellenbosch have not taken control of their own life by getting the disease and after being diagnosed with the disease, not taking their medication as prescribed.
Can Thabo Mbeki be held accountable for a lifestyle disease that is spread through sexual intercourse? It is a social ill and not the responsibility of the president of a country. It is not his doing that the epidemic has spread throughout the South African society. Therefore, Thabo Mbeki’s legacy has nothing to do with the spread of the epidemic in South Africa. The HIV/AIDS epidemic cannot diminish the legacy of Mbeki.
The second issue related to the Mbeki era was that Anti-Retroviral (AVR) programme was not fully rolled out under his tenure. During the Mbeki era South Africa had the biggest AVR programme in the world. The critics of the programme usually takes the figure of people on AVR medication at the beginning of Mbeki’s terms and the end of Zuma’s first term. They argue during the Zuma years the AVR programme was only then fully implemented. It is totally disingenuous to compare the beginning of Mbeki’s era to the end of Zuma’s era. During the time of Mbeki’s government South Africa had the biggest AVR programme in the world.
Lies about the AVR programme led to the diminishment of the Mbeki legacy. If these lies about the roll out is properly exposed, it will and should be able to put his legacy in perspective.
In my view the only wrong decision he made in tackling the epidemic was to invite Aids dissidents on his council of experts. That is the only bad thing he has done to fight the epidemic.