THENEWSOUTHAFRICA
South African authorities had failed to make adequate preparations for
the pandemic as it approached from the north; indeed, in 1999 more than
a third of the AIDSbudget was left unspent; but in 2000, as the crisis deep-
ened into an overwhelming national catastrophe, the president himself be-
came personally involved. Shocked by the fact that drugs used to treat
AIDSpatients in rich countries were far too expensive for general con-
sumption in poor ones, he encouraged local firms to produce alternative
drugs; his spokesman claimed that the drug AZTwidely recommended for
HIV-positivemothers was toxic and part of a conspiracy to kill Africans.
Meanwhile, the minister of health stopped government clinics and hospi-
tals from using reasonably-priced drugs that had seemed to be successful
in Uganda and elsewhere in reducing the risk of transmitting HIVinfec-
tions from pregnant women to their unborn children. Moreover, although
Mbeki was not a scientist, he entered into the controversy about the cause
of AIDS,by appointing an AIDs-advisorypanel that included several mem-
bers of the tiny minority of specialists who still disputed the Widely ac-
cepted theory that HIVcauses AIDS.1 1l In response, 500 scholars publicly