<P> On September 26, 2003, Mbeki's spokesman confirmed that Mbeki had in fact stated that he didn't know anyone with AIDS . This remark provoked considerable criticism from AIDS activists and opposition politicians, with Xolani Kunene of Treatment Action Campaign remarking that Mbeki was "not living in the real South Africa ." </P> <P> Mbeki was asked by the South African Parliament if he thought rape played any role in spreading AIDS, to which he replied that "The disease of racism" led to blacks being portrayed as "lazy, liars, foul - smelling, diseased, corrupt, violent, amoral, sexually depraved, animalistic, savage and rapist ." In an opinion piece written four years later, Roger Cohen cited this remark as evidence that Mbeki considered HIV / AIDS to be "a fabrication foisted on Africans by whites determined to distract the continent from real problems of racism and poverty, and accepted by blacks afflicted with the slave mentality engendered by apartheid ." </P> <P> The ARVs that had been approved by the government of South Africa five months earlier first began reaching hospitals in April 2004 . Some AIDS activists considered this timing suspicious, as it was two weeks before the national elections were to take place that year . </P> <P> Matthias Rath travels to South Africa to sell his vitamins which, he claims, are effective at curing AIDS . He soon began organizing clinical trials of the efficacy of these vitamins, which led to the Treatment Action Campaign suing him later that year . Nevertheless, Tshabalala - Msimang stood by Rath, and even appeared at a forum in April to defend Rath's "right to free speech" and claim that his drugs had "equal validity" to ARVs . Only after a long - running legal battle with the Medicines Control Council were these trials finally declared illegal . AIDS activists have linked Rath's distribution of these vitamins to the deaths of some HIV / AIDS patients . </P>

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