There’s been a ton of debate of Twitter since former Minister of Health, Manto Tshabalala Msimang died. The debate argues that in African culture you never speak ill of a dead person no matter what they did in life. I definitely think it’s wrong to be screaming off the rooftops, “ding dong the witch is dead” purely because it’s disrespectful for friends and family but frankly the way people are speaking about Manto is as though she was a slightly troubled saint. In reality, Manto stood for everything that was wrong with the Mbeki government for ten years: cronyism, incompetence, denialism and an inability to touch the man on the street.
A lot of focus has been placed on how Manto sacrificed her life to walk to Tanzania and the go to Russia to learn Communism and Medicine. This supposedly shows her dedication to the ANC struggle cause but to me this seems like another nail in the coffin of her reputation. You would assume that this overseas experience should have made her more worldly but I posit this time overseas made her lazy, an alcoholic and a crony of Mbeki. Msimang spent her time overseas close to Mbeki and that is how we found her in the presidency, a friend of the president rather than a competent representative of the people and their needs.
There’s been plenty of debate about how her policies between 2000 and 2005 killed around three hundred thousand South Africans. While it’s difficult to run those exact numbers the human cost needs to be considered as well as the reputation cost. Quite simply, Manto made us look like fools on an international stage and regardless of the number of people that died directly or indirectly, this is unacceptable in my mind. Her Kleptomania, Alcoholism and preference for medical treatment was shameful. How many people died because Manto received their liver? Was Manto better than any other South African? I’d say she was worse off for her moral and intellectual failings.
Thabo Mbeki’s spokesperson has come out saying that Manto had never said anything about HIV not causing AIDS and how her promoting vegetables was merely a supplement to ARV’s. Sadly, this a lie and Manto acted like a mini dictator during her tenure. Her support of Mathias Rath, a doctor that promoted taking vegetables and vitamins proves her clear indifference to the suffering of her fellow countrymen and women. A lot of talk comes on how Manto tried to promote women’s rights but again this is patently wrong. If Manto has wanted to promote the rights of women, she’d have provided ARV’s to young mothers so that they could have seen their children grow up. This sudden statement that Manto never said HIV doesn’t cause AIDS is laughable, it was clearly a policy of the incompetence and pathetic “head in the sand” mentality of Mbeki and Msimang. Their legacy should be shamed and a massive black mark placed on both their heads.
I don’t in any way think it’s good that she died but lets stop pretending that she was anything but an incompetent minister that did cause the death of many people who could have lived longer on ARV’s and not beetroot. At the end of the day, if Charles Manson died you wouldn’t think “shame, he was a bit of a mass murderer but his aim in life was to empower the disenfranchised”. It’s just ludicrous to give Manto ANY positive comments.
Let the woman go peacefully and stop making a fuss over someone that doesn’t deserve it. If anything, you should be giving the same press time to the people that died under her regime.
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