The 51st ANC National Conference was held in 2002 at the University of Stellenbosch in Stellenbosch, Western Cape. At this conference, Thabo Mbeki was re-elected as president of the party.
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AIDS reappraisal document
During this conference, an anonymously-authored document, titled Castro Hlongwane, Caravans, Cats, Geese, Foot & Mouth and Statistics: HIV/Aids and the Struggle for the Humanisation of the African, was distributed to party members, alleging that presidential spokesperson Parks Mankahlana and AIDS/HIV icon Nkosi Johnson had died because of consumption of antiretrovirals. The paper was derided by ANC member Dr. Saadiq Kariem as "ludicrous", and international criticism of the stance eventually forced Mbeki to back off from his public stance on AIDS reappraisal.
In 2007, a biography on Mbeki mentioned the author's secret contact with the president during the writing of the biography. Mbeki admitted to the authorship of the document and also confided his feelings on why he had assumed his position on AIDS and HIV in the first place.