I almost punched Mbeki: Carter
Former US president Jimmy Carter nearly punched former SA president Thabo Mbeki over HIV/Aids treatment in the country, the Sunday Times reported.
"The first time I came here to Cape Town I almost got in a fight with the president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, because he was refusing to let Aids be treated," Carter told the newspaper.
He said at the time, then-health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang was standing with Mbeki.
"That's the closest I've come to getting into a fist fight with a head of state".
Carter said he and Bill Gates senior were trying to convince Mbeki to at least provide antiretroviral treatment to pregnant women with Aids, "but Mbeki was against that".
-Sapa