South African President Thabo Mbeki shrugged off opposition calls to fire his health minister yesterday after a newspaper reported she is an alcoholic and still drinking despite having a liver transplant.

Tshabalala-Msimang, 66, had a liver transplant in March as a result of a long-running battle with hepatitis, Dr. Jeff Wing, her doctor, said at the time. The Sunday Times newspaper said Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, dubbed ?Dr. Beetroot? by opponents foradvocating garlic and beetroot to treat AIDS, had alcoholic liver cirrhosis from years of excessive drinking when she had her transplant.

It said in a recent report the minister hid her condition from the public and used her position to secure a new liver. As part of a five-month investigation into the health minister?s conduct, it quotedwitnesses who said she continued to drink since recovering from the operation. The paper also said she was convicted of stealing a watch from a patient while superintendent of a hospital in Botswana in 1976. A Health Ministry statement said the allegations were ?false, speculative and bizarre?.

Mbeki?s spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga told SAFM radio yesterday anyone with evidence that Tshabalala-Msimang had failed in her duties should report it to the presidency and reiterated the president would not sack a minister based on a press report. When asked if the president still had faith in Tshabalala-Msimang?s ability to do the job, Ratshitanga said: ?Yes.?

Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said the report showed Tshabalala-Msimang was a ?political, moral and legal liability? and said Mbeki, who has so far stuck by his health minister, must sack her at once. ?In any properly functioning democracy ... Dr. Tshabalala-Msimang would have been removed from her position long ago,? Zille said in a statement during the weekend. Tshabalala-Msimang has angered AIDS activists by promoting natural remedies for HIV over life-prolonging drugs.

Mbeki earlier this month sacked his respected deputy health minister for insubordination, infuriating activists who applauded her frank and pragmatic approach to dealing with HIV, which has infected some one in nine South Africans. Many activists and the opposition say Mbeki in fact sacked the wrong minister.