BBC Monitoring quotes from the African press 20 March.

(From BBC Monitoring International Reports)

The following is a selection of quotes from editorials and other material published in the 20 March editions of the African press. As indicated, some material from 19 March is also included. Unless otherwise stated, the newspapers are published in English.

South Africa

South Africa's Sunday Times [independent]:"Why are senior members of the government, from the health minister to the mayor of eThekwini, promoting unproven traditional medicines for AIDS at the expense of antiretroviral drugs? Touting the latest herbal 'remedy', Ubhejane - which is taken to the exclusion of AIDS drugs that work - for hospice patients in Durban is not only irresponsible but may shorten their life expectancy..." (Editorial on 19 March - "Unseemly support for dubious cures")

South Africa's Business Day [independent]: "The high levels of discomfort and tension within African National Congress (ANC) structures regarding the choice of mayors should serve to highlight the dangers inherent in a democracy that lacks vigorous participation by the general public and civil society... One day we shall pay a high price for this lack of public participation. There will not always be good people who make these critical deployment decisions for the ANC." (Commentary by Cyril Madlala - "South Africans will pay a price for leaving it all to politicians")

South Africa's Star [independent daily]: "The shameful concept of human guinea pigs has been mostly eradicated since the horror in the Nazi concentration camps and the disgraceful Tuskegee experiment on African-American men last century. But the pain experienced by the six men who participated in the ill-fated London clinical trials [by Parexel International] last week has dealt a moral blow to tests on human research …