JOHANNESBURG — A decade ago, South Africa was in crisis, struggling with AIDS and widespread criticism of its president for a policy blamed in the early deaths of several hundred thousand South Africans. Now former leader Thabo Mbeki faces fresh scrutiny for defending his old pronouncements about the disease.

The comments by Mbeki, who was ousted in a shakeup in 2008, are a grim flashback for South Africans who recall the toll inflicted by AIDS in conjunction with, critics say, the government’s decision to withhold drugs that would have kept AIDS patients alive and to instead promote garlic and beet treatments.

AIDS was the most significant cause in a drop in South African life expectancy to 52 in 2005, down from around 60 years in 1990. Today, South Africa says its antiretroviral treatment program is the largest in the world.

Mbeki, who had questioned the link between HIV and AIDS, said in a Monday post on his foundation’s website that nutrition was critically important and that antiretroviral drugs should be used ‘‘with great care and caution.’’

The Treatment Action Campaign, which promotes access to AIDS treatment, said Mbeki still refuses to take responsibility for his policy. ‘‘The important point . . . is that he intentionally delayed the introduction of life-saving treatment to the people he was trusted to serve,’’ the group said.

Associated Press