By Carien Du Plessis
The Young Communist League plans to lobby the SACP to support its call to charge former president Thabo Mbeki over his HIV and Aids policies.
The YCL said it would pursue Mbeki even if this led to strained relations with the ANC Youth League.
The organisation's national secretary, ANC MP Buti Manamela, who made the call to charge Mbeki and former health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang with genocide a fortnight ago, said ANCYL leader Julius Malema's argument against Mbeki's prosecution was flawed.
Malema came out in support of Mbeki this week, arguing "we must not charge one of our own".
Manamela said Malema was wrong.
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"That means we should open the prison gates because those behind it are some of our own, even if they have attacked our own," he said yesterday.
He said the interests of those who died because of the government's Aids policy should be protected, and the league would adopt a resolution on the matter and lobby the SACP to support its call.
SACP spokesman Malesela Maleka said the party had no stance on the matter.
Meanwhile, the DA's youth wing rebuked the ANCYL and YCL to "stop arguing about what is in any case an impossible objective and get on with solving the problems of delivering antiretrovirals to the people who need them now". The DA's Khume Ramulifho said that if either organisation had done its homework, "they would know that it is not possible to charge anyone with genocide until a country's internal legal processes have been exhausted".
"The devastation left by Mbeki's denialism is enormous, as many people became infected because of the confusion and lack of prevention programmes. Many died because of the refusal to allow 'poison' antiretroviral drugs to be used. But let us not allow the past to excuse the failings of today."
According to e.tv executive producer Debora Patta, Mbeki's office refused to comment and take part in a documentary on Aids denialism aired on Tuesday on the channel's 3rd Degree programme.
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This article was originally published on page 7 of The Star on November 19, 2009
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