DA SLAMS GOVT'S HANDLING OF AIDS CRISIS.

The ANC government's handling of the Aids crisis from 1994 to the present spoke of "massive denial and monstrous failure of leadership," Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said on Saturday. In a speech prepared for delivery at the launch of the Democratic Alliance in Pietermaritzburg, Kwazulu-Natal, timed to coincide with World Aids Day, Leon said President Thabo Mbeki seemed to prefer fiction to fact. "He is not aware of -- or claims not to have read -- reports that Aids is now the leading cause of death in South Africa. He believes that anti-retroviral drugs are more dangerous than the deadly virus itself. He is wrong," Leon said, adding that Aids was the most serious threat to the people of Kwazulu-Natal. Quoting from official statistics relating to Kwazulu-Natal, he pointed out that 70000 children had been orphaned by Aids and an estimated 53500 people had died in the year 2000 alone. He also reminded people that one in three residents of rural Kwazulu-Natal was infected with HIV. "Unlike other political parties, the DA doesn't seek power for power's sake. The DA pursues power for a purpose: to save lives and to better lives in this province and in South Africa," Leon said. "I don't need to spell out these facts to the ordinary people of this province... Many of you attend funerals every month -- the funerals of young people," ...