Medical scientist and anti-AIDS crusader Malegapuru Makgoba says of President Thabo Mbeki's flirtation with AIDS dissidents: "It was like a virgin falling in love with a playboy. It was sad."
Mr Mbeki caused international consternation, and some measure of ridicule, in September when he publicly questioned the link between the HIV virus and full AIDS, saying "a virus cannot cause a syndrome".
Since then he has eschewed further comment, although aides say privately he genuinely believes the intellectual argument behind his statement.
Dr Makgoba, a high-profile black who serves on Mbeki's International AIDS panel, is the president of South Africa's Medical Research Council.
But he is also an outspoken opponent of the minority of scientists ("the dissidents", as they have been called), who question the casual link between the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV) and the illness, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).
If Makgoba's depiction of Mbeki's apparent sympathy with the dissident view is accurate, Mbeki is an older and wiser person today. He has abandoned his frontline position in the debate about AIDS and what measures should be adopted to halt the epidemic.
Instead, he is concentrating on different though equally pressing problems, such as the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the volatile situation in neighbouring Zimbabwe.
Mbeki's decision to distance himself from the AIDS controversy has brought dividends for South Africa's battle to contain the disease. With nearly 20 per cent of adult South Africans HIV positive, according to UNAIDS, it has become a major threat to the future of the country.
A new publicity campaign orchestrated by dedicated ANC loyalist Joel Netshitenzhe is based on the premise that HIV causes AIDS, observes a presidential aide. One of the messages propagated by the new campaign is summed up in the ABC (Abstain/Be/Condoms) message: to avoid the risk of contracting AIDS, South Africans should either Abstain sexually, Be faithful to one partner, or use Condoms.
As UNAIDS notes in its latest report, nearly one in five adults is HIV positive in seven southern African countries, including South Africa Botswana, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. But consciousness of the problem, a vital first step in combating it, is growing.
The recent death of Mbeki's former spokesman, Park Mankanhlana, has increased awareness very close to the presidency. Officially Mankanhlana died of chronic anaemia; but there are strong rumours that the anaemia was a product of AIDS.
If a presidential aide is not immune, all South Africans, irrespective of race, language or religion, are at risk. So, too, is Mbeki's dream that the 21st century will be the century of an African renaissance.