Madlala-Routledge on True Leadership

Update: See video of Madlala-Routledge speaking out on why she was fired.

South Africa's sacked deputy health minister shared some incredibly thoughtful and eloquent reflections on the fight against AIDS in South Africa in this post-firing interview with The Independent. I highly recommend the article, which was written by Katherine Butler, who I got to know a little while traveling in South Africa last month.

"I don't regret saying that our political leaders should show the way and undergo HIV testing, in public," Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge told The Independent. "We need at least 25 million people tested. When you are in charge of the country, you have to offer leadership." Read the rest of Madlala-Routledge's comments here.

I've searched the Internet for an audio recording of today's press conference at which Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge spoke about her firing. Although the press conference was carried live on Cape Talk Radio, I still haven't found anything other than summaries and selected quotes. (Update: here's the video of Madlala-Routledge's comments.)

But the ANC's two coalition partners in government are clearly unhappy with President Mbeki, who axed Madlala-Routledge earlier this week. The Congress of South African Trade Unions said the firing would "deepen the culture of sycophancy among government ministers and officials," while the South African Communist Party, of which Madlala-Routledge is a member, said if they had been consulted, they "would have advised otherwise."

For related entries on Madlala-Routledge, click here.