He was addressing a TAC press conference in Johannesburg on Tuesday on the upcoming ANC national conference. The TAC has officially been invited to the ANC conference this weekend. Heywood said the TAC had spoken about the ANC leadership question at its National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting held earlier on Tuesday, but stressed that it had agreed not to endorse either Mbeki or Zuma. He said: "The leadership question is an important one, but not the sole one".

Although the TAC had put up posters supporting deputy president Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka -- an Mbeki supporter -- Heywood stressed it did not mean that they supported the Mbeki camp. He added that ANC delegates attending the national conference should not lose sight of their priorities as the new person elected to lead, would be the one in power for the next five years.

"We want the new ANC to urgently create a new leadership in the ministry and department of health...and to make health a political and social responsibility," he said. The TAC said it wanted the re-affirmation of its 1997 resolution to spread "correct information on HIV" and the president of the ANC to place the Aids campaign on a day-to-day agenda. He said this had not been implemented by the leader of the ANC over the past ten years.

He said the ANC should ensure that the people who were elected to lead the party did not repeat the "failures" of the previous leaders over the last decade.The TAC's Nosisa Mhlathi said it was through denial and delay that the government of the last ten years allowed hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths due to HIV/Aids to happen.

Chairman of the TAC, Zackie Achmat said his organisation was excited about the ANC conference and potential changes, stressing that there could be no progress in the health department without changes. "When the ANC elected its previous leadership, there were 20,000 tuberculosis deaths and in 2005 there were 70, 000 TB deaths recorded on death certificates," said Achmat. "It is critical for us to have a leadership who is honest, and understands the problems in the health sector," he said.

Frayne Mathijs, programme advisor for the Democratic Nurses Organisation of SA (DENOSA) said it was a disgrace that for the first time in SA's history, "we have a health system in crisis"

"We have horrific cases of violence and rape against women and we still have a system that is not coping," she said.