I am angry, disgusted, saddened, disheartened, furious and more at my president.
He has acted like a stubborn small man. Who cannot cope with critcism, with being proven wrong, with having a strong woman hold an opposing opinion to him.
His actions dictate that should you go against him or his cronies, all power will be taken from you.
Back when Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge took over Health Minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang's duties, she started to make some impressive changes in the government's stance on HIV/AIDS.
And it was back then that I recall some AIDS activists saying, good for her!, but we wonder how long Mbeki will tolerate this.
Wow. He coped for 10 whole months.
Then she became too vocal on the state of South Africa's public health - by calling Frere Hospital and the numbers of babies dying there a disgrace and a national emergency.
And so he sought any petty means to push her out.
He has disgraced our country. And we can all look forward to the AIDS epidemic continuing and to the state of our national health becoming worse and sicker by the month.
Madlala-Routledge is about to make her statement on the radio. Gotta go.
9 comments:
Oh wow! Oh dear.
All this just plays into Zuma's hands in his aspirations to become President.
Well dome Mbeki.
All I can do is sigh...*SIGH*
thanx once again for the update this morning - was very eager to hear what she was going to say about the matter. you mentioned that everyone is furious - what is happening at the grass root level? Are people discussing it, are people as mad? Im going to pull what i can out of my buddies that come online in the next few weeks.
Unfortunately, when the crime stats came out, no-one I know that lives in the townships (which is clearly a biased sample of people) had even heard that the stats were released - which made me even more despondent. I do believe (and hope) this news will be very different... but I am interested to know what discussions are taking place amongst the masses (particularly as those are the people that will be most affected by this decision as they visit the public clinics.)
I am very depressed and disheartened by it all, but if it starts a revolution on the ground against all the other shit that has happened then there is hope... I have to believe there is some hope, otherwise too much I believe in and what I have worked for seems in vain and a waste of time.
Robs - let's hope that it rather helps Sexwale's aspirations!!! Please oh please oh please!! She did say in her statement this morning that she will be using all her new time to push for her best candidate to win the ANC presidency in December.
Phlips - This needs more than sighing though. Mbeki has clearly demonstrated to not support the development and health needs of the SA citizens. We've been slapped in the face and we NEED to react!!!! Not to be complacent as always.
Sergeant Moody - if I come across her full statement, you know I will mail it to you asap.
I can't say I have heard grassroots level response to this. The problem is, how Mbeki is spinning this, is that all people are mainly hearing is that Mbeki fired a deputy minister because the woman abused taxpayers' money by taking an unauthorised trip to Spain, with her son & another person in tow.
The media that is for Mbeki is ignoring all the legal facts & when you hear her statement & only when you explore do you realise that she was not in the wrong in this case. She did not break rules. She went on the trip as part of what she believed to be part of her duties. She took a aids consultant with her, and the government laws say she can travel with a family member.
Mbeki did not authorise the trip as he said that politicians have no place at a conference of AIDS researchers and technocrats. But they do!!!! She was planning on encouraging rich 1st world countries to invest in finding HIV vaccines for the Southern AFrican form of the virus, to help us obtain cheaper meds etc etc. This shows again that Mbeki is an aids denialist!!!!!!! It is horrific. So sad. So digusting. So disasterous.
As for your last statement - close your eyes and just hope. Cause what else can you and I do? Do stop pushing development, even though it means we are working against a government pushing back at us.
I am also hoping for a revolution. But I don't see it. The TAC has said on their site, though, that they will be protesting. Not sure how yet but will keep looking out.
I agree with you - I don't see a revolution on the cards anytime soon. Why though? Are we too complacent? Too scared to risk what we have now for something better?
Too complacent, I reckon. People these days are too focused on material issues than on the framework of their lives. Who cares about political issues in this town to an extent where they would protest to significant levels. Look at the lack of faces at against-crime marches. A handful. Cause everybody else is too busy in their own lives, their daily worlds, not realising that by doing nothing, their worlds are changing around them. Grrrr. Dumb people too!
:-(
For those that may have missed the broadcast of madlala-routledge's response, you can watch online at:
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20070810134859564C551369
sorry - link didnt post properly - here the full URL is:
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?
set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=
nw20070810134859564C551369
Mbeki is an archetypal example of the type of politician Machiavelli describes of in The Prince.
In my opinion, anyway.
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