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South Africa: Treatment Action Update
AFRICA ACTION
Africa Policy E-Journal
April 15, 2003 (030415)
South Africa: Treatment Action Update
(Reposted from sources cited below)
This posting contains an article by Zackie Achmat of South Africa's
Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and an update from Kaiser Daily
HIV?AIDS Report on demands that the South African government
implement a national AIDS treatment program. The TAC has called
for international actions of support on April 24. Health GAP and
ACTUP-NY have taken the initiative for a demonstration at the South
African embassy in Washington, supported by other groups including
Africa Action. For details on the protest in DC, go to:
http://www.actupny.org/reports/tac4-03.html or email:
salynch@healthgap.org
For information on the launch of TAC's current civil disobedience
campaign, see
http://www.africafocus.org/docs03ej/tac0304.php>
For additional background, see the website of the Treatment Action
Campaign [http://www.tac.org.za], which includes the April 9
deathbed statement of TAC activist and poet Edward Mabunda, and the
international solidarity page of the Healthgap website
[http://www.healthgap.org/camp/tac.html], which includes sample
letters to South African consulates. For more general background
and updates on treatment access, see
http://www.africaaction.org/action/access.htm
Another posting today provides an update on the failure of rich
countries to fund the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria.
+++++++++++++++++end summary/introduction+++++++++++++++++++++++
Why We are Angry: The Path to Civil Disobedience
Article by Zackie Achmat that appeared in the Mail & Guardian
(http://www.mg.co.za)
04 April 2003
When my comrades and I disrupted Minister of Health Manto
Tshabalala-Msimang's speech at the Health Systems Trust conference
last week, a public health official taunted one of the Treatment
Action Campaign (TAC) members by saying: "How did you get HIV
anyway?"
We also received an angry letter from a man who feels our demand
for treatment is unfair. This article is written for them. It is
also written for people like Western Cape African National Congress
health spokesperson, Cameron Dugmore, who called us bullies for
disrupting the minister.
First, I apologise unconditionally to the minister for referring to
her personal appearance during our disruption. Any reference to the
personal appearance of an opponent to discredit them is wrong.
It's also wrong because it undermines the dignity of the protest of
thousands of TAC volunteers and allows people who need to curry
favour with officials a cover for their lack of courage and
morality. It is also no excuse to say that I was angry, because a
few minutes before my own anger against indifference became
uncontrollable I had told a comrade whose mother had been
hospitalised with a CD4 count of 54 and raging tuberculosis that
she should use her anger to demonstrate peacefully.
But there are many things I do not apologise for. I do not
apologise for holding Tshabalala-Msimang and Minister of Trade and
Industry Alec Erwin responsible for thousands of HIV/Aids deaths.
Second, neither the TAC nor I will make any apology for making the
minister of health, any politician or bureaucrat feel uncomfortable
through a disruption of any meeting, office or event where they may
find themselves. Hundreds of premature, painful, awkward, silent
and screaming deaths of children, men and women daily are caused by
the failure of the government to implement a comprehensive
treatment and prevention plan for HIV/Aids.
To Dugmore and the other detractors of our campaign who call us
bullies, let me ask: were you at the many lawful marches to
Parliament to give memoranda to the minister and the president
begging for HIV treatment? Perhaps you did not see our march of
about 15 000 people on the South African Parliament asking the
government to sign a treatment and prevention plan on February 14?
What about our early pickets of Parliament, drug companies and the
United States government?
Civil disobedience is action of last resort for us, because
exhaustive efforts at engagement have not worked. Let me ask
further: did you attend any of more than 10 submissions to various
parliamentary portfolio committees begging, cajoling, charming and
arguing for HIV treatment? Did you attend any of more than 30
interfaith services held by the TAC and our allies across the
country appealing to the conscience of the health minister and the
government?
Do you know that we tried quietly to persuade Dr Ayanda Ntsaluba,
Dr Nono Simelela, Dr Essop Jassat, Dr Ismail Cachalia, Dr Saadiq
Kariem, Dr Kammy Chetty, Dr Abe Nkomo and other doctors who are
members of the ANC to ensure that the government change its
policies or to let their scientific training, their Hippocratic
oaths and their consciences allow them to speak the truth?
Maybe you also tried to persuade them that real loyalty to the ANC
and the ideals of the Freedom Charter required open criticism after
numerous private pleas? Have you reminded the ministers of health
and trade and industry that they are undermining the ANC's
traditions of freedom, equality, solidarity and dignity?
Do you remember that the health minister and her supporters in
Cabinet really represent the anti-democratic traditions of the
former Stalinist states that supported them? Perhaps one should
expect people who denied the existence of the Gulag or applauded
the invasion of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and East Germany by
Soviet troops and called the latest Zimbabwean election legitimate
to deny the existence of HIV/Aids and the efficacy of
antiretrovirals?
Did you attend hundreds of community meetings addressed by TAC
volunteers across the country to educate ourselves and our people
about HIV, prevention and treatment? Did you help late into the
night, in support of the government, to develop a court case
against the drug companies to reduce the prices of all medicines
including HIV/Aids medicines? Do you remember how the health
minister spurned the TAC after the case?
Do you know the anguish of the person who made the poster that
said: "Thabo your ideas are toxic"? Were you at the funeral of
Queenie Qiza (one of the first TAC volunteers) or did you hear
Christopher Moraka choke to death after appealing to Parliament to
reduce the prices of medicines?
Maybe, like me, you avoided the funeral of my cousin Farieda
because I cannot face the pain of death? Did you feel as encouraged
as we were by the Cabinet statement of April 17 2002? Are you as
disappointed a year later that so little has been done? Were you
there when we illegally imported a good quality generic antifungal
drug (Fluconazole) and shamed drug company Pfizer for profiteering?
Maybe you followed the TAC/Congress of South African Trade Unions's
treatment congress where unemployed people, nurses, scientists,
cleaners and trade unionists invited the government to develop a
treatment plan? Do you remember our meeting with Deputy President
Jacob Zuma that led to a promise that a treatment and prevention
plan would be developed by the end of February 2003?
Did you miss the word-games played by the government over
negotiations at the National Economic and Development Labour
Council (Nedlac)? Are you one of the people who phone Nedlac
regularly to hear when the government will return to the
negotiating table? Or, are you one of the people too busy taking
care of someone dying but who have a little pride in your heart
when an activist says to the president: "Comrade, you are not
listening to our cries. You are denying the cause of our illness.
You are not helping us get medicines."
After countless attempts at talking, public pressure and even a
court case to prevent HIV infection from mother-to-child, the
government allows the deaths to continue while it plays the caring,
right-minded diplomat in Africa and the Middle East. Politeness
disguises the moral and legal culpability of these politicians and
officials. We believe that the personal crises faced by many of our
families, friends, nurses, doctors, colleagues and their children
should be turned into discomfort and a crisis for the politicians
and bureaucrats who continue to deny our people medicine.
The fact that the health minister is obstructing the departments of
health, finance, labour and the deputy president's office from
signing and implementing a treatment and prevention plan costs our
society more than 600 lives and many new HIV infections every day.
The government uses Parliament, Cabinet, provincial governments and
all its resources including the Government Communication and
Information Service, in the person of comrade Joel Netshitenze, or
health communications officer, Joanne Collinge, to justify its
denial of life-saving medicines to people who need them. It uses
these resources to protect the reputation of the minister of
health. And you add your voices to their chorus? When will you join
reason, passion and anger to win treatment for people living with
HIV/Aids and a decent public health system for all?
The TAC will win in this campaign because its members act in good
faith. And when we win, we will sit down on any day with the
government for as long as it takes to tackle all the difficult
problems of HIV/Aids and the health system. These wounds between
ourselves and the government will not be healed easily. But they
will heal easier than the pain of the millions who are denied
life-saving treatment and those who have succumbed to that pain.
South African Government, Global Fund Fail To Sign Grant Agreement
for Second Time in One Week
April 14, 2003
Access this story and related links online:
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=17152
Contact Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Reports at
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/contact/contact.cfm
Phone: 202-672-5952 FAX: 202-672-5767
E-mail: dailyreports@kaisernetwork.org
E-mail registration: http://www.kaisernetwork.org/email
The South African government and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria on Friday failed to sign an agreement that
would provide more than $40 million in grants to KwaZulu-Natal, one
of the country's provinces hardest hit by the epidemic, Reuters
reports (Reuters, 4/11). Richard Feachem, head of the Global Fund,
arrived in South Africa early last week to sign the deal to release
the first distribution of a five-year, $165 million grant
(Associated Press, 4/11). In April 2002, the fund approved a
one-year, multimillion-dollar grant to KwaZulu-Natal to expand an
HIV/AIDS treatment program to all of the province's clinics. In
June 2002, the South African government tried to block the grant,
stating that the grant application did not go through the national
government before being submitted to the fund as specified in the
application guidelines. KwaZulu-Natal officials said that they
applied directly to the fund because South Africa had not yet
established a Country Coordinating Mechanism at the time of
application. The South African National AIDS Committee has since
been designated as the nation's CCM. In a statement released in
July 2002, KwaZulu-Natal Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said that he
and South African Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang had
agreed to pool the funds under the National AIDS Council, which
would use the money "in a manner that will benefit all the
provinces equitably and within programs contained within the
proposals submitted to the Global Fund." Fund officials would not
allow South Africa to reallocate the funds and said that the
country should reapply for the grant in order to alter the
arrangement (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 11/4/02).
Further Delays
Dr. Nono Simelela, head of the health department's AIDS
directorate, on Thursday night said that there were still "some
outstanding issues" with the agreement. This was the second time
in a week that officials failed to approve the agreement, the Cape
Times/Independent Online reports. The first time, officials said
all that remained to work out were "technical details," including
which government department would be responsible for the grant
money. Feachem said at that time that the officials were simply
"dotting the i's and crossing the t's" (Altenroxel/Majors, Cape
Times/Independent Online, 4/11). However, government officials on
Friday released a statement saying that there were going to be
"further delays" due to "relatively complex legal processes,"
Reuters reports. Feachem said he would allow South Africa as much
time as it needed, but added, "This is very disappointing. The
money needs to flow. These are life and death issues. Delay is
measured in human life ... and we have urged them to complete the
steps they need to complete as quickly as they can" (Reuters,
4/11).
Reaction
Treatment Action Campaign Chair Zackie Achmat, who has threatened
to take legal action if the agreement is not approved, said, "This
is costing lives and if necessary we will make an application to
court to get the minister's reasons for it" (Cape Times/Independent
Online, 4/11). Speaking on Tuesday at a formal gala event to
welcome Feachem to South Africa, Tshabalala-Msimang said that the
Global Fund was to blame for the delays in the agreement, according
to the Mail & Guardian. She said, "We had hoped to sign the
agreement, but there are a few loose ends. The reason we have not
moved with speed is because the Global Fund had to set their house
in order and not that SANAC was not ready. Geneva was not ready."
Speaking after the health minister, Feachem did not address her
comments but called on "all sectors to apply to the fund" for
grants to help provide antiretroviral therapy to those who need it,
according to the Mail & Guardian (Deane, Mail & Guardian, 4/11).
Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane at a joint news conference
with Feachem said, "I have no words to express my dismay. It seems
that the health ministry or whoever is responsible for [the
agreement is] fiddling while Rome is burning. People are dying"
(Associated Press, 4/11).
+++++++++++++++++++++Document Profile+++++++++++++++++++++
Date distributed (ymd): 030415
Region: Southern Africa
Issue Areas: +health+ +political/rights+
The Africa Action E-Journal is a free information service
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commentary and reposted documents. Africa Action provides this
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international policies toward Africa that advance economic,
political and social justice and the full spectrum of
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