The South African government rejected "with contempt" Saturday critical remarks about its AIDS policy made by a high-ranking United Nations official, according to dpa. The UN special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, Stephen Lewis, said at an international AIDs conference in Toronto Friday that South Africa could "never achieve redemption" for its HIV/AIDS policies as 600 to 800 people a day died of AIDS in the country. Spokesman for the South African health department Sibani Mngadi, said that Stephen Lewis did not understand the country's HIV/AIDS programmes. Mngadi said Lewis' comments should not be seen as the view of the United Nations and its agencies which continued to work on the HIV/AIDS problem with South Africa.