JOHANNESBURG,
Sept 29 (Reuters) - South Africa"s central bank governor
Tito Mboweni has warned that the AIDS epidemic threatens to "obliterate"
his country"s economy. "Apartheid killed many people,
but AIDS could obliterate our economy and country," he told
students at Graduands University in a remote part of the country"s
Northern Province. "By far the most powerful enemy in South
Africa today is the HIV/AIDs pandemic. It is real. It is spreading,"
he said in a prepared speech delivered late on Thursday and received
by Reuters on Friday.
South African
President Thabo Mbeki has sparked widespread controversy by saying
he will not accept there is a link between the HIV virus and AIDS
until it is proved by an international panel he has appointed.
Former President Nelson Mandela, however, repudiated his successor"s
views in an interview published on Friday. He said HIV was the
primary cause of the disease, which threatens to kill six million
South Africans over the next 10 years.
Mboweni said
one of the most important ways to combat the spread of the disease
was through education. "As of now, prevention is the only
available means to avoid HIV/AIDS," he said. Around 45 percent
of people in low-income communities either believed there was
a cure for AIDS or that it was not a fatal disease, he said. More
than 10 percent of South Africans -- about 4.2 million people
-- are believed to be carrying the HIV virus.
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