By Ufrieda Ho
Dr Sandile Buthelezi was recently appointed as the new head (CEO) of the South African National AIDS Council. His appointment follows the suspicious non-renewal of the previous CEO’s contract Dr Fareed Abdullah and unsuccessful attempts to lure Eastern Cape head of health Dr Thobile Mbengashe to the post. The success of the new National Strategic Plan implementation and the long-term survival of a robust, relevant and ethical SA National AIDS Council will depend on the new CEO. Spotlight put a range of questions to Buthelezi regarding his involvement in the Tara KLamp debacle, the persecution of doctors at Manguzi Hospital in 2008, and allegations of corruption.
Dr Sandile Buthelezi was recently appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC). Buthelezi’s appointment comes as a surprise, given that it was expected that the position would go to Thobile Mbengashe – who Spotlight understood to have been the preferred candidate of key members of the SANAC board of trustees. However, we understand the Eastern Cape made Mbengashe a counter offer, which made it hard for him to leave for the SANAC job.
Buthelezi’s appointment also surprised activists who are concerned about his involvement in the rollout of an unsafe circumcision device (the Tara KLamp) in Kwazulu-Natal and the persecution of doctors at Manguzi Hospital in 2008. The doctors were providing dual antiretroviral therapy to pregnant women with HIV. At the time providing dual therapy was deemed to be against the government policy of AIDS denialist President Thabo Mbeki and Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
Highly charged atmosphere
Buthelezi is stepping into a highly charged atmosphere with recent news reports describing SANAC as being in disarray and various civil society organisations considering a withdrawal from SANAC. Some of the concerns regarding governance at SANAC relate to the process of appointing a new CEO. For reasons that have not yet been explained, an initial recruitment process was stopped halfway and the post was readvertised early this year. In February this year the trustees, then led by Dr Gwen Ramakgopa, who is now Gauteng MEC for health, announced that Dr Malega Constance Kganakga had been appointed acting CEO for three months while interviews were being completed. It would be another four months (after those initial three months) before Buthelezi took office at the beginning of September 2017.
The board controversially decided in February not to extend the CEO contract of Dr Fareed Abdullah or to allow him to continue as interim CEO. This move was met with widespread condemnation from activists and the Democratic Alliance. Abdullah is credited by some for transforming SANAC into an independent Council that for the first time had five straight years of clean audits and better checks and balances in place to ensure good governance.
Buthelezi told Spotlight he wishes to thank his predecessors “for building SANAC into the credible organization that it is”. “SANAC operates against the backdrop of people’s perception of government institutions and hence our first duty will be demonstrating good corporate governance,” says Buthelezi. “This is a critical obligation that we at SANAC need to uphold, and it will be the hallmark of my tenure.
Persecution of Manguzi doctors
In 2008 Buthelezi was head of HIV and AIDS in KwaZulu-Natal where he played a role in the persecution of doctors at Manguzi Hospital. Dr Colin Pfaff, acting medical manager at Manguzi Hospital at the time, and colleagues broke rank from official Department of Health policy to introduce dual-therapy treatment for HIV-positive pregnant women at a time when official government policy was to provide only monotherapy.
The science at the time was clear that dual therapy was superior to monotherapy in reducing mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Pfaff raised funds from donors to pay for the introduction of dual therapy at Manguzi. Pfaff was suspended for this and faced disciplinary action – that was later withdrawn.
Buthelezi admits he worked closely with doctors in the district at the time and adds: “I believe it is unfair to expect a junior official to act out of sync with national government policy.” At the time Buthelezi was quoted making a similar argument in the New York Times saying “I am wary of us undermining national just because of what other provinces are doing (referring to the rollout of dual therapy in the Western Cape)”. At the time Buthelezi was working under controversial KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Health Peggy Nkonyeni – who was a close ally of AIDS denialist Health Minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
No regrets regarding Tara KLamp
In 2010, Two years after the Manguzi scandal, with government-sanctioned AIDS denialism having meanwhile “ended” under the leadership of first Health Minister Barbara Hogan and then her successor Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, the Kwazulu-Natal Department of Health was involved in another high-profile controversy. The department started providing circumcisions with an unsafe plastic circumcision device called the Tara KLamp. The device caused a number of serious injuries and eventually became the subject of a Treatment Action Campaign complaint to the Public Protector. Questions about alleged kickbacks relating to the procurement of the Tara KLamp remain unresolved seven years later.
While Buthelezi wrote letters and was quoted in the media in relation to the Manguzi scandal, it appears he was less directly involved with the Tara KLamp rollout. Another Sandile, Sandile Tshablalala, was in charge of the circumcision programme in the province. As with Manguzi, the Tara KLamp had high-profile political backing this time in the form of MEC for Health Sibongiseni Dhlomo, then Premier of Kwazulu-Natal Zweli Mkhize, and King Goodwil Zwelithini.
Yet, as head of HIV and AIDS in the province Buthelezi would have almost certainly been party to decisions made regarding the rollout of the Tara KLamp. We can find no evidence that he opposed the rollout in any way – this while he admits involvement in the circumcision programme. “I am proud of my contribution to the roll-out of medical male circumcision in KwaZulu-Natal,” says Buthelezi, wwhich included (…) Rallying all stakeholders including His Majesty, in advocating for MMC.”
“The implementation of medical male circumcision in the province remains a watershed moment in the country’s HIV response,” he says. “A province where circumcision was not routinely practised, took the lead in including medical male circumcision as part of a combined package of prevention methods. This is a significant achievement and I have no regrets.”
Corruption allegations
In late 2010 Buthelezi left the KZN Department of Health. A source suggested to Spotlight that Buthelezi’s departure was related to allegations that he awarded a catering contract to a family member.
While Buthelezi does not dispute that the allegations were made, he insists that they are baseless and untested. “The issue relates to a tender that was dealt with at a district where I was not involved in any of the bid committees,” he says. “I only received paper work to approve payment after the district committees and management had signed that they received the goods and/or services.”
Buthelezi says he left the KZN Department of Health because he received a better job offer and that he continued to have a good relationship with the department after he left. He took up a position as country director of ICAP, a University of Columbia initiative to strengthen health systems around the world. From there he left to work at HLSP- Mott MacDonald, as senior technical lead with the health sector consultancy. In 2014 he was reappointed to the ICAP role.
“He will have to build trust”
Several of Buthelezi’s previous colleagues, members of the SANAC board and people he had professional dealings with at his previous positions were contacted to comment on Buthelezi’s appointment. Some didn’t respond and some declined to comment on record. Professor Wafaa El-Sadr the director of ICAP, based in New York, did comment, saying that in the last three years that he reported to her that Buthelezi did meet specific implementation targets and successfully built important linkages and partnerships within his team. “He had a good understanding of the lay of the land. He had the experience and he did understand South African realities.
“The challenges for a strong SANAC will be about never losing sight of the core of what we do and that is to change the lives of people. He will have to build trust and be able to bring along with him even those people who are not supportive of him,” says El-Sadr.
“He was on the wrong side”
Anele Yawa, General Secretary of the Treatment Action Campaign, says that Buthelezi’s past cannot be ignored. “He was on the wrong side – he was an AIDS denialist, like Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and Thabo Mbeki, he wasn’t for the people,” he says.
“We don’t just want a warm body in the position of CEO and we still don’t know what happened with the process of appointing a new CEO,” says Yawa. “Buthelezi must be able to add value. He can start with audits of the organisations that are part of the SANAC civil society sector – he can even start with TAC, this will make it clear who should be part of SANAC and who should not.”
Yawa says SANAC has to return to the grassroots – the face of HIV/AIDS, not be fixated on “meetings and conferences held in fancy hotels”.
Even with his outspoken criticism, Yawa says that for now TAC remains committed to staying within SANAC. “We want to fix the problems because we have come a long way. But when we ring the bell Buthelezi must come. We give him three months to get his house in order,” says Yawa.
“I believe in service”
Buthelezi says his vision for SANAC will become clearer once he settles into the role. But he says he’s up to the job. “I come from rural eShowe where humility, respect and ubuntu define human relations,” he says. “We’ve fought HIV for too long – we must see results.”
“I believe in service and I am results-driven and work well with teams. I hope we shall be an organisation that listen actively, prioritises what’s important, adapts readily and empowers others.”