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The Democratic Alliance (DA) is dismayed by reports that Thami Mseleku is to be appointed as High Commissioner to Malaysia. Mseleku was one of the key implementers of South Africa's Aids denialist policies and it is contemptible that he should be rewarded for this with a comfortable diplomatic posting.

We call on President Zuma to examine his record more closely and reconsider this appointment.

Mseleku made sure that all President Mbeki's and Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang's Aids dissident views were carried through into policies and implemented.

As such, he was a critical part of an era that, according to a study by Harvard University school of public health, resulted directly in the unnecessary deaths of 365 000 South Africans, including 35 000 babies.

He approach to health care is best exemplified by his comment, in 2008, that ‘human rights were not relevant to considerations of health policy in a developmental state'.

Mseleku was a firm supporter of vitamin quack Matthias Rath, asking a New Yorker journalist during an interview: "What, exactly, was Rath's crime?" Amongst many other offences, he was responsible for:

Actively working to stop Nevirapine from being made available to pregnant mothers;
Driving the Health Department's defence in court of its refusal to put in place an antiretroviral treatment programme;
Refusing to act against the maker of uBhejane, a quack Aids cure, and a multitude of other fake healers preying on the desperation of people with HIV.

The list goes on and on, and it is completely unacceptable that an individual with this much blood on his hands should receive such favoured treatment.