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Mbeki and the charge of genocide - Frans Cronje

Frans Cronje
20 November 2009

The former president is morally but perhaps not criminally liable for AIDS deaths

The minister of health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, has blamed Thabo Mbeki and his administration for the Aids pandemic in South Africa. Dr Motsoaledi referred to a report that South Africa had 0.7% of the world's population but 17% of people infected with HIV and Aids. The Young Communist League has gone even further and called for Thabo Mbeki and his health minister to be charged with genocide. Data the Institute has published in its annual South Africa Survey this month shows the extent of the death and suffering inflicted on black South Africans by the Mbeki administration's HIV and Aids policies.

The South Africa Survey was published this week. Its 729 pages of data on economic, social, and political trends on South Africa places the progress made in the country since 1994 in context. Eight pages are devoted to HIV/Aids trends, indicators, and forecasts, and echo what the health minister said last week.

The data shows that approximately 5.7 million South Africans were living with HIV/Aids in 2009. Eighteen percent of the adult population was infected. Half a million new infections were recorded in 2009. Over 300 000 people died of Aids-related illness in 2008 including 47 000 children under the age of 14. In total, to July 2009, 2.9 million South Africans had died. Approximately half of all deaths in the country were related to HIV/Aids. 

African South Africans carried almost the entire brunt of the pandemic. Their total infection rate in 2008 was 13.6% compared to 1.7% for coloured people and 0.3% for white and Indian people.

The consequences for South Africa's social and family relations have been devastating. The number of Aids orphans living in South Africa was estimated at between 1.1 million and 1.4 million in 2007. The number is expected to rise to just under 2 million by 2010. A figure of as many as 700 000 child-headed households has been estimated. The psychological damage to poor black communities is immeasurable.

South Africa's infection rate was far higher than the 5% average for sub-Saharan Africa, and the 0.3% average for North Africa and the middle-east. Infection rates for the rest of the world were without exception lower than 1%. 

Why African South Africans have such an extraordinarily high infection rate has never been properly explained. It is very likely, however, that the contradictory and obstructionist policies of the Mbeki administration must carry some of the blame. These policies denied the relationship between HIV and Aids and caused much public confusion. However, the government also allowed activities such as the Abstinence - Be faithful - Condomise, or ABC campaign, to operate. Most of the people infected over this period also had a personal choice in the decision they made to have unprotected sex or to have scores of different partners. They therefore have to carry much of the responsibility for having been infected. The same does not obviously apply to rape victims and the like. Any case for Mbeki's culpability can therefore not hinge solely on South Africa's HIV infection rate.

His government's HIV/Aids policies were however responsible for denying access to life-saving medication through the public health sector. The government accused critics of its treatment policy of racism, and publicly promoted ‘traditional African remedies' of potatoes, beetroot and lemon juice. The government told people that ‘western' medicine was dangerous and had ‘side effects'. Where public sector doctors did prescribe anti-retroviral drugs they were in many cases dismissed. Non-profit organizations trying to promote anti-retroviral medication at public hospitals were banned from these institutions. As a result of failing to get proper treatment almost 3 million people died.

Three things need to be determined before considering a case for Thabo Mbeki's possible liability for these deaths.

1. The first is whether the Government had an obligation to provide healthcare services to poor people.

2. The second is whether the government could afford to provide such services.

3. The third is whether the provision of medication could have prevented many of the three million deaths.

On each of the three points the answer is probably yes. The Constitution requires that the State provide adequate healthcare services within its resources. The ANC certainly regards itself as having that responsibility sometimes to the extent of seeking to curtail the efforts of the private healthcare sector. The State should have been able to afford anti-retroviral treatment both within its own budget and considering the groundswell of international sympathy and likely financial assistance that would have been generated by South Africa pursuing a determined treatment campaign. The efficacy of the drugs themselves was never in doubt outside of Thabo Mbeki's small circle of advisors.  

Mr Mbeki therefore has at least the moral liability for the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of thousands of South Africans. His government had a constitutional responsibility to provide treatment to people infected with Aids but they chose not to provide such treatment. This decision was not made on the grounds that the treatment was not affordable or could not be obtained from international donors but rather on the grounds that it was not necessary. It was presumably not Thabo Mbeki's intent to kill hundreds of thousands of people but in this case the absence of intent does not alter the fact that the consequences of his negligence and indifference were foreseeable.

Throughout the time that Mr Mbeki foisted his Aids policy on South Africa, Parliament had the legal, and the ANC the political, power to remove him from office. Not once in this period did a member of his cabinet publicly disagree with him or resign in protest. The ANC therefore shares collective responsibility with Thabo Mbeki. What is often described as Thabo Mbeki's Aids policy would in fact be better described as the ANC's Aids policy. When the ANC did remove him from office it was over a simple power play in the ruling alliance suggesting that the party saw an internal power squabble as more serious than the deaths of so many of their own supporters.

What then to make of the proposal that he be charged with genocide? As this morning's Business Day points out, ' the legal definition of genocide almost certainly does not apply to the government's Aids policy. And if charges of murder were laid the evidential burden would be difficult to discharge'Business Day then goes further to suggest an HIV/Aids truth commission which it says would be less acrimonious than criminal charges. However, as the youth league of the ANC has already intimated, the party would never allow the idea to get off the ground for fear that the collective responsibility of its sitting leaders would be uncovered. In any case, South Africa's politicians have already demonstrated how they manipulate truth commission proceedings to their own political advantage.

There is however another option open to the victims of the ANC's HIV/Aids policies. That is to pursue class action-style civil claims against the government and the ANC for loss of breadwinner support and the like that resulted from deaths of their family members. But incredibly, many of the victims remain among the most loyal and steadfast supporters of the ANC and are unlikely to initiate any action against their leaders.

This column is left to conclude how different things would have been had the white government clung to power for another twenty years and during that time pursued an Aids policy that denied treatment to mainly black people. The resulting deaths would surely have featured at the highest levels of international politics and been on the agenda of the United Nations' Security Council. Terms like ‘crimes against humanity' would have been loosely tossed at the government and the ANC would have used the government's indifference to black life as a primary campaign upon which to rise to political power in South Africa. However fifteen years after white South Africans surrendered political power to the ANC, that party has presided over exponentially more deaths of black people than were killed in the preceding 400 years of colonial rule.

Frans Cronje is deputy CEO of the South African Institute of Race Relations. This article first appeared in the Institute's weekly online newsletter SAIRR Today, November 20 2009

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 responses to this article

It would be crazy to claim this is a crime against humanity...
I have no love for the Xhosa Nostra man, nor for his black supremacist ideology, but it would be crazy to claim that he committed genocide or a crime against humanity in implementing HIS GOVERNMENT'S POLICIES with respect to anti-retrovirals and AIDS. He . .more

by JVR on November 20 2009, 16:11
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this
Aaron Mottwaledi said "we", meaning the government. He never blamed Mbeki or anybody else.

I listened to his briefing and also an interview on radio.

by sk on November 20 2009, 16:19
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re: please
Absurd, in a word! Morally responsible??? Please. It is self-evident that there are far too many with axes to grind. Please, let us move forward, this constant hucking between political parties, institutions, organisations, corporations is so tiresome at . .more

by Ekenj on November 20 2009, 21:02
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The truth
Don't blame Mbeki on aids blaming whites who created aids to exterminate black africans

by tgt on November 20 2009, 22:50
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The truth
Don't blame Mbeki on aids blaming whites who created aids to exterminate black africans

by Ali on November 20 2009, 23:05
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In fact Mbeki is the solution to AIDS problem...
Only if blacks could follow his lifestyle of one wife; you can provide all the ARVs or as many condoms you like; as long as the deliquent lifestyle does not change AIDS will wipe us off the face of the universe. STOP (Stick To One Partner)!!!

by Mute Fool on November 21 2009, 11:12
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The joke is on us
In addition to puting together a comprehensive policy to fight HIV/AIDS, Mbeki invited the country the country to a thorough debate on the causes of this desease, and on what practical solutions are necessary to prevent it. We responded by calling him a . .more

by Monde on November 22 2009, 18:03
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Monde misses the point
. . . because Mbeki threw the uneducated masses off the correct path by suggesting that whatever they did it would make no difference to their health. Where there is a duty to speak and advocate affirmative conduct, as there surely was in this case, then . .more

by Peter on November 23 2009, 02:22
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culpability for AIDS deaths
Genocide involves the intentional killing of a people or nation.[The Greek word "genos" means "race".] It would be exceedingly difficult to persuade any objective tribunal that the Mbeki administration deliberately set out to kill its own people, so talk . .more

by paul hoffman on November 23 2009, 07:27
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Mandela's role
Mbeki deserves sanction for his denial and gross negligence on Aids. What about Mandela? Mandela deserved his Nobel Peace Prize for outstanding leadership with the black takeover. However as president he failed miserably against the biggest disaster, . .more

by Jan on November 23 2009, 08:01
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@monde
The Mbeki government denied that HIV led to AIDS, and refused to make ARV's available to AIDS patients; to that extent he and his Government were responsible for the early deaths of hundreds of thousands of South Africans.

Remenber Mbeki's . .more

by mpho on November 23 2009, 08:33
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@The truth by tgt
Just small correction. The whites did not "create" AIDS. This virus originated in Tanzania and than appeared in San Francisco to kill white people of certain sexual orientation and next to kill people of ALL races.

by jack07 on November 23 2009, 09:05
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Mbeki and ANC not quilty
In my view, Mbeki and the ANC are not to be blamed at all. Individuals who have aids should take responsibility for their actions and face all consequences. Also, the healthy ones are not responsible for the sick ones. It is wrong to use money from the . .more

by natures way on November 23 2009, 09:18
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tosh!
The objective reality of the situation is that I NEVER stated that HIV causes AIDS.
The new paradigm of the African Millenium will show the entire world ( except Africa, of course, which already knows it) that we Africans have broken free of the . .more

by Pipe-smoking garden gnome on November 23 2009, 09:24
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Not criminally liable byt certainly crinimally negligent
He made his idiotic decisions despite extensive proof to the contrary. A case could certainly be made for negligence.

by ps on November 23 2009, 09:49
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@ tgt
And just how was this virus created? Stop your one-eyed denialism and help to resolve the issue.

by Nic on November 23 2009, 10:35
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I honestly thought it was ANC policy to let them die
Surely they were thinking that they could reduce the absolutely appalling and irresponsible birth rate? That is what seemed the case so it is some suprise to know that Mbeki actually was at fault here. Just the usual African stuff is it not? Could anyone . .more

by Bewildered on November 23 2009, 10:45
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@natures way
If,for example, appendectomies were banned by government, an a person died of a burst appendix, would that person be to blame for his burst appendix?

The point is that Mbeki and co cruelly and callously refused to make life-saving medicines . .more

by mpho on November 23 2009, 10:53
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Culpability
We are all culpable. to different degrees

Mbeki is massively culpable for pushing his crackpot theories. It has to be genocide, if for nothing else than the sheer stupidity of pushing his personally developed theories against those of qualified . .more

by Alto on November 23 2009, 11:09
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Is the subject really about attacks on the Former President?
Just as much as a lot of readings stipulate and direct crictisim of negligence and refusals from Mr Mbeki about the Arv's availability presentation, what were Aids commisioning bodies doing in this context to raise the issue if this is correct and . .more

by Courage on November 23 2009, 12:45
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Wasting time and oxygen talking about it.
This is Africa - In Africa poor peope die because governments are incompetent. You must make absolutely sure that you (personally) feed at the trough of luxury and get as much as you can for yourself - the poor always have and always will die in Africa. . .more

by Dave on November 23 2009, 13:01
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Most people here are ignorant about HIV/AIDS and ARV's.
Giving a poor person (with no proper diet) ARVs is like killing them. It was on Mbeki's insistence that the poor be given a grant first before prescribed ARVs which is still the case today. HIV/AIDS can only be solved by STOP; condoms & ARVs give people a . .more

by Mute Fool on November 23 2009, 13:50
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Blame game
I lost my sister in 2005 from AIDS related illness. The thought of blaming Mbeki for my sister's death is ridiculus. There is no cure for HIV. ARV's are not cures. I know a lot of people who died while using the drugs. Even a famous Kwaito star died while . .more

by Mogotsi on November 23 2009, 13:50
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Thank goodness
Thank goodness that the racist black government is finally taken to task for the AIDS genocide.
I also propose we charge the government for the TB genocide, H1N1 genocide, Road accident genocide, Skin cancer for those who forgot to apply sun screen, . .more

by Peter van wyk on November 23 2009, 13:59
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Denialism
The old story of unintended consequences. He was simply hell bent on denying that aids was becoming endemic to the black population and showed just how promiscuous their lifestyle is. Ego. The solution? Deny deny deny ... And of course if you deny . .more

by Cynic on November 23 2009, 14:21
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Blame our selves
Wow 500000 people were infected last year only. Why should we spend billions on drugs when the money can be chanelled to improving health care in the country. People who get infected nowadays with so much awareness campains and free condoms have . .more

by Thabiso on November 23 2009, 15:14
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What's next
South africa is desperate for making genocide headlines around the world. To prove they are part of africa.
First it was the BOERE genocide, then black on white crime genocide and now HIV/AIDS genocide. Whats next?

by Botha on November 23 2009, 15:21
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HIV/AIDS
Many HIV researchers have denounced Mbeki's AIDS initiative as "idiotic", "dangerous" and "unrelated to science", saying that it is their "duty to intervene.'' "This is fiddling while Rome burns,'' said Dr. John Moore, a leading scientist at the Aaron . .more

by Lungelo on November 23 2009, 15:35
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HIV AIDS
Many HIV researchers have denounced Mbeki's AIDS initiative as "idiotic", "dangerous" and "unrelated to science", saying that it is their "duty to intervene.'' "This is fiddling while Rome burns,'' said Dr. John Moore, a leading scientist at the Aaron . .more

by Lungelo on November 23 2009, 15:36
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HIV/ AIDS
These threats of coercion have no place in open scientific inquiry. No scientific theory should be run like a protection racket. The fact that voices are raised so defensively to enforce conformity and silence debate should be seen as a sign that the . .more

by Lungelo on November 23 2009, 15:37
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Can we really afford ARVs
Let's do the Math, the distribution of ARVs in KZN alone is costing govt. more that R1.2 billion per annum (only distributed to 25% of the total population that needs it).
Now, we are saying that govt shoudl distribute to all South African who are . .more

by Celemba on November 23 2009, 17:38
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@Celemba
Why don't we kill all non-productive people. That would also make economic sense. After all they are merely a blight on the landscape, of absolutely no use whatsoever.
Best solution I'v heard yet to the overpopulation of poor nations. After all these . .more

by Jeff on November 23 2009, 19:53
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Mbeki's Aids Policies and Quiet Diplomacy
Both genocides and will be proven in time to be so.

by Pene Charamba on November 24 2009, 06:42
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Mbeki
Once you know of the deliberate & criminal Harare AIDS cover-up circa 1985/86; & then watch Pretoria under Mbeki following the same denial & cover-up policy in SA, you find a clear trail to the doors of the top ANC leadership that can be held to account . .more

by John Austin, London on January 20 2010, 00:06
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Part 2 : Mbeki
Why African South Africans have an extraordinary high infection rate is easily explained, & any soldier who has worked across the colour bar in Southern Africa will tell you... the prevalence of VD (especially untreated or part-treated . .more

by Jon Austin, London on January 20 2010, 00:29
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