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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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