Action Treatment Campaign supporters chant and dance during a protest demonstration at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, yesterday. The AIDS activists challenged the government to prove its commitment to combating the disease in the wake of the dismissal of the country's well respected deputy health minister. - AP

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP):

A former U.N. envoy yesterday accused South African leader Thabo Mbeki of presiding over an 'AIDS apocalypse,' and said his dismissal of the country's former deputy health minister was a severe blow to the fight against the epidemic.

Stephen Lewis, who recently retired as U.N. special envoy on HIV/AIDS in Africa, called for international pressure on the government to implement an ambitious anti-AIDS campaign, which was inspired by ousted deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge.

"It is said that 900 men, women and children die every day in South Africa of AIDS-related illnesses. It's Armageddon every 24 hours," Lewis wrote in an opinion piece for South African newspapers.

Last week, Mbeki sacked the deputy minister who had clashedopenly with his close ally, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. Mbeki, long accused by activists of being in denial about HIV/AIDS, said she had refused to act as part of a team.

Tshabalala-Msimang, the object of international criticism for promoting garlic, lemons and beetroot as therapy for people with AIDS and for her open mistrust of antiretroviral medicines, was embroiled in an escalating dispute yesterday over allegations in the Sunday Times that she ordered staff to bring her wine and whisky during treatment for a shoulder problem at a private clinic in 2005.