The former Irish international rugby player, John Robbie, is at the centre of a heated controversy following a sharp clash on radio with the South African Health Minister, Ms Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, over the AIDS policy of the African National Congress-led government.
Mr Robbie, who hosts a talk show on Johannesburg-based Radio 702, was "mulling" over the dispute yesterday as the ANC, angered by his alleged rudeness to Ms Tshabalala-Msimang, demanded his immediate resignation or dismissal for "undermining the noble profession of journalism".
His replacement on the talk show, however, was confident that Mr Robbie - a straight-talking journalist who tends to dispense with elaborate courtesies dealing with political notables - would be back on Monday.
The interview initially focused on a document detailing a purported "AIDS conspiracy" by the Illuminati, who reportedly introduced AIDS in Africa via a smallpox vaccine as a deliberate ploy to reduce the African population. From that point the discussion led to President Thabo Mbeki's attitude to AIDS as manifest by, firstly, his apparent sympathy for AIDS dissidents who dispute the orthodox view that AIDS is caused by HIV, and, secondly, his failure during the recent international conference on AIDS in South Africa to state explicitly that HIV is the cause of AIDS.
Ms Tshabalala-Msimang said emphatically that Mr Mbeki's position had been misinterpreted. Taking that as a cue, Mr Robbie then asked her whether she believed HIV led to AIDS.
She insisted she had already answered the question in her exposition on Mr Mbeki's misinterpreted views: "You will not force me into a corner [with a] yes or no," she said. "You will not pressurise me to answer that."
Tempers flared. Ms Tshabalala-Msimang rebuked Mr Robbie for addressing her by first name.
"I am not Manto to you. I am not your friend." Mr Robbie responded: "Go away. I cannot take that rubbish any longer . . . I have never in my life heard such rubbish."
Radio 702 appeared to be resisting ANC pressure. Its station manager, Mr Dan Moyane, a black man, told the South African Press Association Mr Robbie had neither been asked to resign nor dismissed.
The president of the South African National Editors' Forum, Mr Mathatha Tsedu, another black man, expressed astonishment at the ANC's attempt to protect the Health Minister after "she refused to answer a question". But, he added, Mr Robbie's language at the end of the interview was "inappropriate and therefore regrettable".