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The DA has today written to the Deputy President, Cyril Ramaphosa, to request that Criselda Kananda-Dudumashe is not appointed to the Board of the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC).

The DA is of the belief that Kananda-Dudumashe is not fit to serve on the SANAC Board given the numerous concerning public comments she has made. Some of these comments include:

• In a news article released on 26 June 2014 it is was stated that “Kananda, who has tested HIV positive herself told the Citizen newspaper she will never take antiretrovirals because they are deadly and easy way out”.
• Further, she allegedly also “insists that HIV does not cause AIDS and that AIDS is instead the result of a compromised immune system, of living an unhealthy lifestyle and being attacked by infectious diseases”.

Since there is no public process to the appointment of the SANAC Board, the DA has written to the Deputy President as he is the only person with the power to stop her appointment.

These comments point to the fact that Kananda-Dudumashe may be an AIDS denialist.

We have seen how detrimental AIDS denialism is. More than 300 000 South Africans lost their lives because of the AIDS denialism of the Mbeki-administration.

The DA respects Kananda-Dudumashe’s personal choice for alternative treatments of HIV/AIDS. However, millions of South Africans who are affected by the epidemic, depend on antiretrovirals every day to treat their illness.

Ms Kananda-Dudumashe’s past comments on HIV/AIDS are misleading and irresponsible, especially as a public figure. The fact that she is so blatantly opposed to ARVs and does not believe that HIV causes AIDS is cause for grave concern.

Her influence could result in people living with HIV/AIDS defaulting on their treatment which could potentially have deadly consequences on all matters pertaining to HIV/AIDS in our country.

Ms Kananda-Dudumashe’s utterances clearly suggest that she is not fit to hold any position on the SANAC Board.

South Africa has come a long way since the devastating policies of the previous administration and we must not repeat those mistakes again.

Issued by DA