Mbeki disputes AIDs is main killer in S. Africa

Mbeki disputes AIDS is main killer in S. Africa

President Thabo Mbeki, who has attracted a storm of controversy for questioning the link between HIV and AIDS, said on Monday violence and not AIDS was the biggest killer in the country.

"You know what the largest single cause of death in South Africa is? The largest single cause of death as we sit here is what in the medical statistics is called `external causes' and that is violence in this society," Mbeki said in an interview broadcast by the BBC.

The remarks are likely to attract further doubts over Mbeki's stance on HIV-AIDS which affects close to five million South Africans, more than any other single country.

United Nations modeling estimates that seven million South Africans will die from AIDS-related diseases within the decade.

South Africa has a reputation as one of the most dangerous places outside a war zone and current police statistics point to a total of about 220,000 murders over the next 10 years.

Mbeki has acknowledged that the Human Immunodeficiency Virus is a cause of AIDS, but does not accept it is the only cause, arguing that poverty plays a key factor in the pandemic that affects more than 25 million Africans.

He has denied life-prolonging antiretroviral drugs on cost and safety grounds and appointed scientists who argue AIDS is caused by recreational drug use to his own panel on the disease.

Mbeki, in his interview on the BBC "Hard Talk" program, said more than half of those who die between the ages of 16 and 45 will die of "external causes."

"I am saying that the majority of people in this country are dying from that.

"You cannot say to me I must ignore that and not take into account the fact that the majority of the people in that particular age group, which is the working population, is dying from the violence that is so terrible in this society," Mbeki, who came into power in 1999, said.

Popular mayor in race for Madagascar presidency

The mayor of Madagascar's capital will stand in presidential elections this year against the country's long-standing leader Didier Ratsiraka.

Marc Ravalomanana, a business tycoon and independent politician, announced his candidature on Sunday in the small village of Imerinkasiana, where he was born, just outside the capital Antananarivo.

Ravalomanana is popular in the capital for transforming the crowded and impoverished city, and is well known throughout the country due to his Tiko range of dairy products and drinks. He also owns three radio stations and is launching a television station.

Ravalomanana said his campaign would focus on the rapid development of Madagascar.

The elections are due in November or December, and Ratsiraka has already announced he will stand for a fifth term as president of the Indian Ocean island.

The 64-year-old Ratsiraka, a former naval officer, served as president from 1975 to 1993 and then again from 1997 to the present.

Article Copyright Sengstacke Enterprises, Inc.