Parks Mankahalana, spokesperson for South African President Thabo Mbeki, works in the Union Buildings in Pretoria, the imperial complex of red stone edifices that constitutes the seat of government. Mankahalana invited Malcolm and me into his high-ceilinged office, where a silver coffeepot surrounded by cookies sat welcoming on a tray. Five minutes later, after I pressed him about Mbeki simultaneously attacking the value of anti-HIV drugs and courting AIDS dissidents like Peter Duesberg and David Rasnick, Mankahalana was asking us to leave. Malcolm then wisely poured each of us coffee. We stayed for another hour. "You see, it's difficult for humankind to accept that in the year 2000, with all of the scientific progress we've made, there is an illness that's baffling us," said Mankahalana. "The only person who is going to stop me from listening to the so-called dissidents is the person who says, 'Parks, I have a vaccine for AIDS, a cure for this disease. Bring me a person who has HIV or AIDS; I'll give this person an injection or 10 or 20 tablets, and the person will heal.' When Rasnick and Duesberg get in touch with me, I'll say, 'Chaps, here is a drug. Give it to those people who have got HIV/AIDS, they'll get well. End of story.' "
(Photograph by Malcolm Linton)
