In the age of Ebola, it's only too easy to forget other ongoing health crises like HIV and AIDS. But countries with large AIDS populations don't forget, and neither do the world's most powerful and profitable brand-name pharmaceutical manufacturers. The reminder came in South Africa earlier this year but is only now garnering the wider attention it deserves.  

The story involved a highly respectable network consisting of a leading Washington lobbying firm headed by a senior associate of the George W. Bush administration working for Big Pharma companies in the United States and South Africa. We all know who they are. We use their products every day.   

When Nelson Mandela decided to step down after only one term as president of his country, he created one of the world's most exclusive and tiniest clubs.

Almost nowhere do political leaders decide they are so easily dispensable.

In the rich world, most have to be defeated, or see humiliating defeat looming before retiring. In Africa, most leaders have had to be carried out in body bags, their bodies often weighed down with lead.

In this matter, as in so many others, "Madiba" was unique and set a glorious example, which the leaders who now honour him so piously have not the slightest intention of following.

But just being Mandela didn't always make him right.