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 CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) - South Africa's president called critics of his embattled health minister "wild animals" in a remarkable display of support for a woman decried by AIDS activists for advocating beets and garlic as remedies for the disease.
His defense of Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang came as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel laureate often regarded as the moral conscience of the nation, said in a speech Friday that the Health Ministry "has presided over the vast deterioration in health standards of our land."
Tshabalala-Msimang has been condemned at home and abroad for her unorthodox views on the AIDS virus, which has infected an estimated 5.4 million South Africans — the highest number for any country in the world.
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