Haya ni moja ya mahojiano mengi ambayo Raisi Mbeki aliyafanya na hii ndiyo kauli yake na alichouliza Dr.Kitila majibu yake tayari yalikuwapo kama asingefanya uvivu wa kusoma angeuliza maswali yenye mwelekeo na maana zaidi kwa demokrasia ya bara letu
DATE: 15 July 2003
EVENT: Interview with Gavin Esler, Newsnight, BBC
SOURCE: BBC Subtitling Transcript
ESLER: Could I turn to a big problem which affects everybody in the continent and affects the conscience of everybody outside Africa, the problem of AIDS. Do you think with some 600 South Africans a day dying because of the AIDS problem, that your government has been too slow to act?
MBEKI: I don't know where you get the figure from, I don't have it. I don't know where that figure comes from. The South African Government has got, I am certain, the most comprehensive programme on the matter of AIDS and the best-funded. I think the response is very good, very comprehensive.
ESLER: Have you changed your personal views about medical research and the relationship between the HIV virus and AIDS?
MBEKI: I never raised that question. I don't know where that comes from.
ESLER: There were many reports that you doubted the two were related?
MBEKI: They were false, I have never said that. The issue we raised was that in terms of responding to AIDS we've got to have a comprehensive response. Look at the entirety of the health conditions of a person. Because for instance, you can't feed a person who has no food. Feed them with medicines and drugs and so on. You have to take care of things like that.
ESLER: Will antiretroviral therapy become available paid for publicly in South Africa?
MBEKI: It is available now.
ESLER: Your government will pay for it?
MBEKI: It is available now.
ESLER: To anybody who wants it?
MBEKI: There is mother to child transmission, those drugs are given. People who have injuries at work and people who get raped and go to the public health hospitals and so on. The matter of the general availability of antiretroviral drugs is a matter that was raised even by President Bush, do you have the health infrastructure to handle such a programme?
ESLER: Those activists who complain you are going too slowly, are they wrong?
MBEKI: They are very wrong. They started off by saying all you needed was to give drugs and we are saying no it is not. They've changed. Now they are saying you must also take care of nutrition.
Chama
Gongo la Mboto DSM
CC
: Kitila; Kiranga, Bukyanagandi, Mundu