<P> On 25 September 2008, Motlanthe was elected by Parliament as the third post-apartheid President of South Africa . Chief Justice Pius Langa announced Motlanthe's election after a secret parliamentary ballot contested between Motlanthe and Joe Seremane from the opposition Democratic Alliance . In the ballot, Motlanthe gained 269 votes from the 351 cast . </P> <P> Although he has been criticised for standing by Mbeki's "soft and non-confrontational" approach towards the Zimbabwean crisis, he was quite critical of Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union--Patriotic Front and Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change . Furthermore, his criticisms of emerging black capitalists and that Black Economic Empowerment was that it should be "restricted to one deal (per individual) and that what was needed was genuine economic transformation that benefitted the Black masses rather than creating an elite club of Black millionaires" has earned him the "resentment of budding Black capitalists ." </P> <P> Over HIV / AIDS, Motlanthe is accused of regurgitating Mbeki's now widely - discredited denialism . However, he changed his stance on ARVs following the government's decision of a mass rollout programme . </P> <P> Motlanthe has expressed his desire to address AIDS in South Africa using conventional scientific approaches . He appointed Barbara Hogan to replace Mbeki's health minister Manto Tshabalala - Msimang, who had denounced anti-retroviral drugs as poisons and advised the use of olive oil, garlic, and beetroot by HIV - positive persons . In early March 1998 he led the ANC's charge against the Medicines Control Council for refusing to allow the testing of Virodene on human subjects . He suggested that the MCC was acting under the sway of rival pharmaceutical manufacturers saying "I surmise that the council is driven by other interests than concern for proper control of medicines". </P>

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