Mantombazana "Manto" Edmie Tshabalala-Msimang (née Mali; 9 October 1940 – 16 December 2009) was a South African politician. She was Deputy Minister of Justice from 1996 to 1999 and served as Minister of Health from 1999 to 2008 under President Thabo Mbeki. She also served as Minister in the Presidency under President Kgalema Motlanthe from September 2008 to May 2009. Her emphasis on treating South Africa's AIDS epidemic with easily accessible vegetables such as African potato, garlic and beetroot, rather than with antiretroviral medicines, was the subject of local and international criticism. These policies led to the deaths of over 300,000 infected South Africans. Education Born as Mantombazana Edmie Mali in Durban, Tshabalala-Msimang graduated from Fort Hare University in 1961. As one of a number of young African National Congress cadres sent into exile for education, she received medical training at the First Leningrad Medical Institute in the Soviet Union from 1962 to 1969. She then trained as a registrar in obstetrics and gynaecology in Tanzania, finishing there in 1972. In 1980 she received a master's in public health from the University of Antwerp in Belgium. She was an official within the exiled ANC leadership in Tanzania and Zambia during the latter decade of apartheid, with job responsibilities focused on the health and well-being of ANC militants there. AIDS policies Tshabalala-Msimang's administration as Minister of Health was controversial, because of her reluctance to adopt a public sector plan for treating AIDS with anti-retroviral medicines (ARVs). In 2000, she was interviewed by Radio 702 presenter John Robbie, Tshabalala-Msimang refused to say whether she believed HIV caused AIDS. She was called Dr. Beetroot for promoting the benefits of beetroot, garlic, lemons, and African potatoes as well as good general nutrition, while referring to possible toxicities of AIDS medicines. She was widely seen as following an AIDS policy in line with the ideas of South African President Thabo Mbeki, who for a time publicly expressed doubts about whether HIV caused AIDS. In 2002, the South African Cabinet affirmed the policy that "HIV causes AIDS" which as an official statement silenced any further speculation on this topic by Cabinet members, including the President. In August 2003, the cabinet also voted to make anti-retrovirals available in the public sector, and instructed Tshabalala-Msimang to carry out the policy. The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and its founder Zackie Achmat often targeted the minister for criticism, accusing the