Who is parks mankahlana

The question is a simpler one: why the silence? In one reading of the affair, the answer is equally simple: political expediency. The interview was not without pathos. Who could fail to sense the invidiousness of Dr Tshabalala-Msimang's position? Caught between a rock and a hard place, she doggedly refused to contradict the President but at the same time kept appealing to Robbie to check her record on AIDS, which would presumably have answered his question in the affirmative.

Read between the lines, she implied: hear what it's not possible for me to say directly. Throughout these incidents and convolutions Parks Mankahlana was there, playing his role as presidential spin-doctor and front-line trooper in the AIDS polemic: given Mbeki's press-shy policy of presidency-by-remote-control, Mankahlana often lent more of a face and voice to the presidency than the President himself.

And if the AIDS controversy placed Tshabalala-Msimang in an invidious position, one can only wonder what curious space, what psychological entanglement, Mankahlana inhabited in his final months. The African National Congress is expected to come under pressure today to make a clear statement about the cause of the death of Parks Mankahlana, spokesman for President Thabo Mbeki and a controversial figure in South Africa's Aids debate. Mr Mankahlana, 36, died yesterday after going on extended sick leave in July, leaving his job at the height of the controversy over Mr Mbeki's questioning of whether the human immunodeficiency virus, HIV, leads to Aids.

He had served Nelson Mandela after the elections and became Mr Mbeki's spokesman last year. Mr Mankahlana wrote a number of articles in his own right about Aids and was criticised for saying that a declaration signed by 5, scientists stating that HIV causes Aids belonged "in the trash".

Asked if he knew anyone who was HIV-positive, he responded, 'I really, honestly, don't know. This sparked fury in South Africa where an estimated five million are infected with HIV - more than one in 10 of the 45 million population. Critics accused Mbeki of dishonesty and demanded an apology to a nation where, every day, die of Aids and babies are born with HIV.

For years Mbeki has refused to accept that HIV causes Aids and his government has delayed making available cheap antiretroviral drugs that would save millions of lives.

In August the government reversed its opposition to the drugs and later this month it is due to unveil a programme to make them available. He remained there after the general elections, when he served on a number of parliamentary committees and was the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs, a position he held until he was appointed as the Chief Whip of the majority party in the NA. Ms Modise noted that Mr Mthembu was a good leader who understood that in this role you will experience conflict, not only between the political parties represented in Parliament, but also between the legislative and the executive arms of state.

Ms Modise called on all Members of Parliament to rededicate themselves to fighting the coronavirus pandemic in the name of Jackson Mthembu.