Tshabalala-Msimang was born on 9 October 1940 in Durban. She matriculated in 1959 at Inanda Seminary Secondary School and took a BA at Fort Hare University. In 1962 she chose political exile. While in exile she qualified as a medical doctor in 1969 at the USSR's Leningrad Medical Institution. 

In Tanzania she received a Diploma in Obstetrics and Gynaecology from the University of Dar-Es-Salaam Medical School in 1972. It was here that she initiated the establishment of the Health Department of the African National Congress (ANC) in Exile. This Department was to look at health issues specific to the exile community: mental illness, malaria, HIV/Aids and other premature deaths. This Department worked closely with the Tanzanian government and other mission offices around the world.

On her return to South Africa, she dealt with gender and primary health care issues. In 1998 she was elected to the Chair of the Gender Committee of the National Executive Committee of the ANC. Tshabalala-Msimang was appointed Health Minister in 1999, a position she has occupied since.

Tshabalala-Msimang’s stand on HIV/AIDS, strongly aligned with President Thabo Mbeki’s, has evinced much negative attention from the public and across the political spectrum. One of the major concerns has been the government’s lack of a plan, and then its slow delivery, concerning anti-retroviral roll out to people living with HIV and the administering of Nevarapine to HIV+ pregnant mothers. A resultant widespread lack of confidence in the Minister, both internationally and in South Africa did not affect her position and she was returned to the same cabinet portfolio in the 2004 general election.

She served as chair of the National Assembly's health committee, and on July 1 1996, was appointed deputy justice minister. She was appointed minister of health in Mbeki's administration on June 17 1999.

She died on 16 December 2009 from complications related to her first liver transplant in 2007. She is survived by her husband, ANC veteran Mendi Msimang and her two daughters, Zuki and Pulane.

References

• Manto Tshabalala-Msimang biography. News24 [Online]. Available at: news24.com [Accessed 17 December 2009]

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