We've had a long wrangle with the pharmaceutical industry about parallel imports, and what we were saying is we want to make medicines and drugs as affordable as a possible to what is largely a poor population.

Economic policies
The CIA World Factbook says: "South African economic policy is fiscally conservative but pragmatic focusing on targeting inflation and liberalising trade as means to increase job growth and household income. He also participated in many of the other important negotiations between the ANC and the government that eventually led to the democratisation of South Africa. The delay in distributing antiretroviral drugs is attributed to the ban he placed on their use in public state hospitals and is also linked to the estimated deaths of some hundreds of thousands.

On 12 January 2009 the Supreme Court of Appeal unanimously overturned Judge Nicholson’s judgment but the resignation stood. Mbeki created employment in the middle sectors of the economy and oversaw a fast-growing black middle class with the implementation of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE). During his time in office the economy grew at an average rate of 4.