1. health and fitness
2. disease
3. aids and hiv

1998-2010
for
our lives
The history of the
Treatment Action Campaign
1
Fighting for our lives: The history of the Treatment Action Campaign 1998-2010
By the Treatment Action Campaign
Published by the Treatment Action Campaign, 122 Longmarket street, Cape Town 8001, South Africa. Tel: 021 422 1700. Fax: 021 422 1720.
Email: info@tac.org.za. Website: www.tac.org.za
ISBN: 978-0-620-48732-0
October 2010
© Copyright 2010, Treatment Action Campaign
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior permission from the
publisher or the authors.
Copy editor: Lee Smith
Design and layout: Designs4development, www.d4d.co.za
Cover photograph: Samantha Reinders
Printing: Mega Digital
Acknowledgements
Text compiled and edited by Marcus Low, Catherine Tomlinson, Mara Kardas-Nelson, Kay Kim and Nathan Geffen. Faniswa Filani supplied the lyrics
to Jikelele. Interviews conducted by Carohn Cornell. Design and layout by Designs4development. Photo editing by Mara Kardas-Nelson, with photo
research by Pouya Gharavi, Jennifer Reid, and Poppy Riddle.
Over the years, TAC has collected thousands of anonymous photographs, making it impossible for us to properly credit every one used in this book.
We apologise for this discretion, and appreciate those who have documented our work throughout the decade. Special thanks to Community Media
Trust (CMT) for the use of video stills.
The high quality of TAC’s materials over the last decade has been a product of the work of Rosie Campbell, Melissa Visser, Roulé le Roux, Doret
Ferreira and Darryl Cotton.
1998-2010
Fighting
for
our lives
The history of the
Treatment Action Campaign
December 1998 – TAC is launched on the steps of St Georges Cathedral
March 1999 – TAC marches to Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, calling for a national prevention of mother-to-child
transmission (PMTCT) programme
June 1999 – Thabo Mbeki is elected as president and Manto Tshabalala-Msimang is appointed as minister of health – the
era of government-endorsed AIDS denialism begins
March 2000 – TAC imports generic fluconazole in defiance of Pfizer’s patent
2000 – Médecins Sans Frontières establishes first antiretroviral treatment programme in Khayelitsha
2001 – TAC starts litigation against Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, demanding PMTCT
April 2001 – TAC starts litigation against the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association
July 2002 – The Constitutional Court rules in favour of TAC, forcing government to provide nevirapine to pregnant mothers
September 2002 – October 2003 – Hazel Tau launches a Competition Commission complaint over the excessive
pricing of antiretrovirals and wins
March 2003 – TAC launches civil disobedience campaign
December 2003 – TAC member Lorna Mlofana is murdered after revealing her HIV status
April 2004 – Government slowly begins to roll out antiretroviral treatment
Early 2005 – Matthias Rath arrives in Khayelitsha, peddling false cures for HIV
TAC Timeline
July 2005 – Rubber bullets shot at TAC members in Queenstown
4
2005 – TAC launches campaign against gender-based violence
June–August 2006 – TAC wins court case establishing the right of prisoners to access treatment
2007 – National Strategic Plan adopted
January 2008 – Government adopts new PMTCT protocols
February 2008 – Doctors in KwaZulu-Natal fired for providing PMTCT to pregnant mothers
2008 – TAC organises civil society response to xenophobic violence
June 2008 – Cape Town High Court rules that Rath’s activities are unlawful.
September 2008 – Thabo Mbeki is removed from presidency and Manto Tshabalala-Msimang is replaced
Nov 2008–May 2009 – Free State moratorium results in hundreds of unnecessary deaths
December 2009 – New government signals an end to denialism and announces improved treatment guidelines
April 2010 – South Africa has the biggest treatment programme in the world, one million people are now on treatment, but
another million still need treatment urgently
Early Years........................................................1
Quacks and Denialists........................... 59
The struggle for life-saving medicines.......................................... 3
Rath’s deadly quackery........................................................... 60
Why the Treatment Action Campaign started................................ 4
The end of Rath..................................................................... 63
TAC’s first public action............................................................. 6
The end of state-supported AIDS denialism?.............................. 64
Fast at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital..................................... 7
The break from NAPWA............................................................. 8
TAC on the Ground................................. 67
The disease is where the drugs are not........................................ 8
Grassroots activism................................................................ 69
The AIDS denialism of Thabo Mbeki......................................... 10
Spreading TAC across the country............................................ 70
Save our Babies.......................................... 13
“Apartheid classified me as coloured” TAC in the Western Cape... 73
Fighting for health workers...................................................... 74
Save our Babies...................................................................... 14
“In 2002 there was no voice about HIV” TAC in Limpopo........... 76
“My baby was always sick”...................................................... 17
“We took government head-on” TAC in Mpumalanga.................. 78
TAC demands AZT or nevirapine............................................... 19
“Something that amazed the whole world” TAC in
TAC takes Manto to court......................................................... 20
KwaZulu-Natal...................................................................... 80
Peggy and the good doctors................................................. 23
Why mother-to-child transmission prevention is important........... 24
“We get no treatment in here - we are dying in numbers”........... 81
“We’ve seen people grow in TAC” TAC in Gauteng...................... 82
“Desperation” TAC in the Eastern Cape..................................... 85
Getting treatment to rural areas............................................... 87
Using the law........................................................................ 29
Bullets and medicines in Queenstown...................................... 88
Taking TAC to the people........................................................ 30
The crisis in the Free State: 30 deaths a day............................. 90
“We can learn the science of how HIV works”........................... 32
Learning from doctors and other activists.................................. 33
Defending our Rights. ............................ 93
Antiretrovirals can work in Africa.............................................. 34
Myths of poisonous drugs and biological warfare....................... 36
Wearing my HIV-positive shirt................................................. 39
TAC’s Strategies......................................... 27
Treatment Now.......................................... 41
Campaign against rape........................................................... 94
The murder of Lorna Mlofana.................................................. 96
Justice for Lorna?................................................................... 96
Breaking the silence............................................................... 98
Changing attitudes to women................................................ 101
“Human rights are for all people, no matter what their
sexual orientation”............................................................... 102
Xenophobic violence............................................................ 104
The struggle for treatment....................................................... 42
Christopher Moraka and fluconazole........................................ 43
Patient rights before patent rights............................................. 44
Beating the drug companies in court........................................ 47
Hazel Tau versus big pharma.................................................. 48
Fired for saving lives.............................................................. 49
TAC takes to the streets.......................................................... 50
Beat it!............................................................................... 113
Dying for treatment................................................................ 52
“We read it from cover to cover” TAC’s magazine,
Government relents................................................................ 54
Equal Treatment.................................................................. 114
The Treatment Project............................................................. 57
The Generics....................................................................... 117
Making Headlines.................................. 107
Getting it right with the media............................................... 109
How TAC journalists uncovered deaths in Delmas.................... 110
6
Early
Years
1
1. Photo
[PAGE 4 OF 124 ROMAN NUMERAL IV]
Photograph of Nonkosi and Vuyiseka [CAPTION: Nonkosi
Khumalo and Vuyiseka Dubula, TAC General Secretary]
OR
Photo of Nonkosi and child [NO CAPTION]
ALTERNATIVELY LEAVE THIS PAGE BLANK
Photo: Gideon Mendel
2
EarlyYears
The struggle for life-saving medicines
Having been in the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) for
as it is popularly called, was adopted by Cabinet. There
ten years, I, like many other TAC members, feel that this
was almost no access to treatment and there were many
book cannot have come out at any other time than now.
unnecessary and avoidable deaths.
This is because of the rich history that comes with telling
the story of this organisation.
South Africa became a playground for all sorts of
charlatans who took advantage of the space and, to no
When TAC was launched on 10 December 1998, our
surprise, the protection of government. This included
agenda was to ensure that people living with HIV got
people like Matthias Rath and Zeblon Gwala. Court cases
access to safe and effective treatment, antiretroviral
and intense community mobilisation became the order
medicines in particular. These drugs were already
of the day in dealing with a non-responsive and arrogant
available and widely used in developed countries. Sadly, it
government.
was not the case in South Africa. Antiretroviral treatment
was so expensive that only a few and the rich could
afford it. The majority of those living with HIV and in need
of treatment were dying because they were too poor to
access treatment. This fight was won in courtrooms and
in the streets. We paved the way for the state to start
providing comprehensive health care services.
But the problem of lack of access to treatment was not
just about the price of drugs in South Africa. It was also
about the lack of political leadership, starting from the top
with ex-President Thabo Mbeki and the Ministry of Health
under the late Minister of Health Dr Manto Tshabalala-
Most importantly for many of us in TAC, this organisation
became a centre of learning and leading. It became
a home where we learned about politics, leadership,
democracy, law and social mobilisation. It became more
than just about HIV, but also about access to health care
and what section 27 of the Constitution means.
We have combined different tactics such as community
mobilisation, the South African Constitution and law,
education, research and use of the media to achieve our
ends. This is why TAC has transformed many of us in
ways we never thought would ever be possible.
Msimang, all the way down to provinces like the Eastern
I hope that as you read this book you will learn and
Cape, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu Natal. Consequently,
appreciate this important struggle in our new democracy.
this meant that no treatment plan was implemented
I hope too that you will be inspired to go out there and do
until 2004. And there was no ambitious strategic plan
the same, if not more.
until 2007, when the National Strategic Plan, or NSP
Nonkosi Khumalo, TAC Chairperson
Photo: Jenine Tilley
3
“We want ordinary people
in South Africa to have
antiretrovirals. I am urging
people all over the world to
show solidarity.”
Edward Mabunda, April 2003
Edward Mabunda
Why the Treatment Action
Campaign started
These were Edward Mabunda’s last recorded words.
It was because of the need to make treatment available
He died of AIDS on 9 April 2003 at the age of 36. He
to the millions of South Africans living with HIV that TAC
was a TAC leader and a poet. He was one of over 600
was started on International Human Rights Day.
people that died of AIDS that day and every other day in
South Africa. Most of them died because they could not
access life-saving antiretroviral medicines. In the United
States and Europe, HIV had become a manageable and
treatable disease. True, there was no cure and still is not,
but people with HIV in wealthy countries could live almost
“normal” healthy lives.
4
“TAC is an extension of the work started in the Bellville
Community Health Project with Zackie Achmat, Jack
Lewis and others who joined the Marxist Workers
Tendency of the ANC in the mid-1980s,” says Deena
Bosch, who has been with TAC since the start.
EarlyYears
“Through TAC I have found there is love,
life, laughter and hope after diagnosis.
One can fall in love, make new friends
and explore new things.”
Mziwethu Faku, former TAC Queenstown co-ordinator
5
Image courtesy of CMT
Signatures being collected in support of free AZT for pregnant mothers at TAC’s first action,
St George’s Cathedral, Cape Town, 1998
TAC’s first public action
TAC was launched on 10 December 1998 with a fast
“The Treatment Action Campaign calls on the minister
by ten people on the steps of Cape Town’s famous St
of health, Dr Zuma, and Trevor Manuel, the minister of
George’s Cathedral. TAC’s first statement read:
finance, to meet immediately with NAPWA and HIV/AIDS
“The National Association of People Living with AIDS
(NAPWA) has initiated the Treatment Action Campaign
to draw attention to the unnecessary suffering and AIDS-
[an antiretroviral drug] for pregnant mothers with HIV/
AIDS.
related deaths of thousands of people in Africa, Asia
“TAC also calls on government to develop a
and South America. These human rights violations are
comprehensive and affordable treatment plan for all
the result of poverty and the unaffordability of HIV/AIDS
people living with HIV/AIDS.”
treatment.
6
organisations to plan for resources to introduce free AZT
EarlyYears
Fast at Chris Hani
Baragwanath Hospital
Mark Heywood, the director of the AIDS Law Project
Image courtesy of CMT
(now SECTION27), explains “The AIDS Consortium and
the AIDS Law Project (ALP) began in the early 1990s
as projects in Wits University’s Centre for Applied Legal
Studies, under the leadership of Edwin Cameron. TAC
began as a campaign within the National Association
of People Living with AIDS (NAPWA). Staff of the AIDS
Consortium, ALP and NAPWA helped to get NAPWA–
TAC going. The nucleus was a small group of activists
who knew each other and worked closely together.
The AIDS Consortium brought together a wide range
of organisations, including NAPWA and ALP, to share
resources about HIV and human rights and to plan
campaigns.
The symbolic launch of TAC was in December 1998
but the real launch was a month later at a small
meeting at the AIDS Consortium office in Johannesburg.
Zackie Achmat, Edwin Cameron, Peter Busse, Mercy
Makhalamele, Mazibuko Jara, Phumzile Mthethwa,
Morna Cornell, myself and a few others discussed how
to build TAC into a mass movement. In March 1999,
activists took to the streets in Braamfontein and Soweto
and visited clinics, hospitals, schools, shopping centres
and bars, collecting 13,000 signatures in support of the
demand for a prevention of mother-to-child transmission
programme.”
transmission programme. There were about 250 people,
including people with HIV, doctors, traditional healers and
church leaders. Some staged a ‘lie-down’ at the hospital
gate. AIDS organisations and the Johannesburg branch
of the South African Communist Party were there. So was
the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).
Others sent messages of support. Florence Ngobeni, who
Sharon Ekambaram goes on “Our first public event in
had recently lost her child because of mother-to-child
Johannesburg was the Fast to Save Lives on 21 March
transmission, spoke bravely. Through actions like this we
1999, in front of Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.
attracted a group of volunteers who took the campaign
We were demanding a prevention of mother-to-child
into communities.”
7
The disease
is where the
drugs are not
The Global March for Access to Treatment took place on 9
July 2000. It was hosted by TAC and Health GAP. About
900 people attended a meeting jointly organised by TAC
and Médecins Sans Frontières demanding that treatment
be made available.
The break from
NAPWA
are the drugs? That’s where they are, the drugs are where
the disease is not. And where is the disease? The disease
is where the drugs are not.”
And Judge Edwin Cameron explained “I’m here, I am able
to talk to you, I’m able to engage with you, I’m able to
TAC eventually had to move on from NAPWA. TAC
speak with you about this important topic because I’m on
members supported outspoken activism independent of
antiretroviral therapy. People throughout Africa, 25 million
the pharmaceutical industry. NAPWA was more cautious
people in Africa and 34 million people in our whole world,
and was willing to take money from drug companies.
are this moment dying. And they are dying because they
“After a while we gave up the idea of rebuilding NAPWA
don’t have the privilege that I have of purchasing my
as a progressive, mass-based organisation and decided to
health.”
build TAC as an independent movement. As we learned
Immediately after this meeting, 5,000 people marched
about the political economy of HIV treatment and the
to the opening of the International AIDS Conference in
drug industry, our pickets and press statements targeted
Durban.
the US government and drug companies and attracted
media attention. This drew a group of affected people who
gave us activist momentum and energy. Some attended
treatment literacy workshops in Cape Town, run by
8
Dr Peter Mugyeni from Uganda famously asked “Where
The chairman of the conference, Professor Jerry Coovadia,
said “[Treatment] can be afforded. It is too expensive not
to intervene.”
Hermann Reuter of Médecins Sans Frontières and others,”
TAC’s treasurer, Nathan Geffen, remembers two
explains Mazibuko Jara, TAC’s first chairperson.
TAC members who helped organise the march “Sbu
EarlyYears
Mkhize was admitted to the King Edward Hospital with
“Ronald Louw was the first TAC treasurer in KwaZulu-
cryptococcal meningitis, an AIDS illness with a high
Natal. He was also a first-rate legal mind. He was
fatality rate. We did not know that he had HIV until then.
treatment-literate, but overcome perhaps by internal
When I visited him in hospital, I was astounded by the
stigma he did not get tested for HIV, despite falling ill. In
number of young people sharing the ward with him, who
2005 he was admitted to hospital and diagnosed with
all appeared very ill. Dirty floors and walls with paint
HIV and a very low CD4 count. Ronald regretted not
peeling off them made the place particularly unpleasant.
getting tested and said that if he recovered he would go on
Sbu recovered temporarily, but he needed treatment. He
a speaking tour telling people to get tested. Unfortunately,
died a few weeks later.
he never got out of hospital.”
TAC members marching at the 2000 International AIDS Conference in Durban
9
The AIDS denialism of Thabo Mbeki
In June 1999 Thabo Mbeki became president of South
no credibility in the scientific community. Later that year,
Africa. He appointed Manto Tshabalala-Msimang as his
5,000 scientists from all over the world signed the Durban
minister of health. Over the following decade, their AIDS
Declaration, which stated that the evidence that AIDS is
denial and mismanagement of the health system would
caused by HIV is “clear-cut, exhaustive and unambiguous,
cost many thousands of lives.
meeting the highest standards of science”.
As early as October 1999, Mbeki expressed scepticism
Meanwhile, Tshabalala-Msimang continued citing price,
about the use of the antiretroviral drug AZT. He responded
safety, side effects and resistance as barriers to rolling out
to calls to make it available in South Africa by saying that
antiretroviral treatment. Nevertheless, through litigation
there exists “a large volume of scientific literature alleging
and pressure, government was forced to start providing
that, among other things, the toxicity of this drug is such
antiretroviral treatment. Tshabalala-Msimang was not
that it is in fact a danger to health”.
happy with this and continued to retard the provision of
Soon after, Tshabalala-Msimang announced that she had
asked the Medicines Control Council to review the safety
of AZT before it could be used to prevent mother-to-child
transmission. The Council then endorsed the use of AZT,
but she rejected their recommendations.
Mark Heywood explained the consequences for TAC “Thus
it was that a campaign for access to treatment came to
generate an organisation that, while never intending to
clash with government, could not avoid conflict in the face
of the unexpected change in approach to HIV initiated by
President Mbeki in late 1999.”
wherever possible. She kept questioning the safety of
antiretrovirals and supported quacks like Matthias Rath,
Tine van der Maas and Zeblon Gwala.
The graph on the next page shows the effect of AIDS on
adult female deaths in South Africa. Note how deaths
in South Africa rose between 1997 and 2004. More
importantly, note how the age-pattern of deaths has
changed. Not shown in this graph is that by 2000, the
absolute number of South Africans dying in their 30s
and 40s exceeded those dying in their 60s and 70s. The
graph shows that by 2004, the proportion of female South
In early 2000 Mbeki formed a Presidential Aids Advisory
Africans dying between the ages of 30 to 34 was almost
Panel. In the two official meetings of the Panel, Mbeki
the same as those dying between the ages of 60 to 64.
invited roughly as many AIDS denialists as he did
reputable HIV scientists. The views of the denialists had
10
treatment and the introduction of improved treatments
EarlyYears
2010 Zapiro – Reprinted with permission – For more Zapiro cartoons visit www.zapiro.com
Deaths per 100,00 people
Recorded female deaths in South Africa and Brazil for ages 15 to 64
2500
2250
2000
1750
1500
1250
1000
750
500
250
0
Brazil 2004
South Africa 1997
South Africa 2004
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
Age
Constructed by Andrew Warlick and placed in memory of him.
11
12
Save our
Babies
13
Save our babies
Sarah Hlalele was a young Sharpeville mother, TAC
activist and counsellor. Months before her baby was due,
Sarah made the trip to Chris Hani Baragwanath, one of
the few hospitals that had rolled out treatment to prevent
mother-to-child transmission of HIV. She kept the precious
nevirapine tablet at home but was away from home
when she went into labour. She gave birth prematurely in
Sebokeng Hospital where there was no nevirapine tablet
for her and no nevirapine syrup for her son.
Sarah told her story for TAC’s court case to demand a
national programme to prevent transmission to infants,
but she did not live to see the rollout. She died from
a side effect of antiretrovirals that was not detected in
time. At her funeral, Sharon Ekambaram said “AIDS has
denied Sarah’s children the right to know their brave
mother…She will be remembered for her beautiful smile,
her strength of character and her courage…We owe it to
Sarah to unite to end discrimination against poor people
which results in the premature death of thousands.”
Sarah’s daughter Puleng
holds a portrait of Sarah at
her graveside.
14
SAVE Our Babies
Photo: Gideon Mendel
15
16
Photo: Roulé le Roux © Designs4development
SAVE Our Babies
“My baby was always sick”
Busiswe Maqungo, in a personal affidavit filed as part of
especially not from the doctors all the time. My baby
TAC’s prevention of mother-to-child transmission court
received no special medicines after she was diagnosed;
case, said “My baby was always sick. I had to borrow
she got the same medicines normally given to HIV-
money from her father’s parents to take her to hospital.
negative children. I gave birth to an HIV-positive baby who
She normally had to go to Red Cross or Conradie Hospital
should have been saved. That was my experience, the sad
and she was once admitted in Tygerberg Hospital.
one, and I will live with it until my last day.”
Sometimes my baby would be out of hospital for a week
and then she would be sick again. I never had enough
time with her. Doctors always told me that my baby will
die and that there was nothing they could do for her. I
knew my baby would die, but I didn’t want to hear it,
Because of TAC’s campaign for prevention of mother-tochild transmission of HIV, Busisiwe would indeed access
antiretrovirals during her next pregnancy. And today she
has a healthy, HIV-negative child.
As a result of losing
a child to AIDS,
Busisiwe Maqungo
was active in
campaigning for
prevention-ofmother-to-childtransmission
programmes.
Images courtesy of CMT
17
SAVE Our Babies
TAC demands AZT or nevirapine
“We were just a few people toyi-toying
in the streets for access to AZT before
the 1999 elections. Some people thought
AZT was a new political party!”
Nomfundo Dubula, former TAC Women’s Rights co-ordinator
In 1994, researchers found the first evidence that the
antiretroviral drug AZT could reduce the risk of mother-tochild transmission of HIV. Initially, it was thought that the
high cost of treatment would make it unsuited for use in
developing countries.
Then a study in 1998 showed that a short course of AZT,
from only week 36 of a pregnancy, could significantly
reduce the risk of transmission. In 1999, similar efficacy
was found with the antiretroviral nevirapine taken at birth.
This meant that the tools now existed to prevent HIV
infection in many thousands of babies. It was estimated
that in 1998 up to 70,000 children were born with HIV
in South Africa. Yet, despite some initially positive signs,
like a pilot programme run in a number of sites across
the country, it soon became clear that the South African
government had little interest in providing pregnant
women with protection for their babies. This refusal to
provide antiretroviral treatment was rooted in the AIDS
denialist views of President Mbeki and his health minister.
They argued that AZT was toxic and too expensive.
In March 1999, TAC held its first demonstrations in
Cape Town and Durban and at Chris Hani Baragwanath
Hospital, calling for a national prevention of mother-tochild transmission programme.
19
TAC takes Manto to court
Government did not respond to TAC’s pressure. So in
2001 we took the minister of health, Manto TshabalalaMsimang, to court to force her to allow facilities in the
public health system to provide nevirapine or other
suitable antiretrovirals to pregnant women with HIV.
TAC won the case in the Pretoria High Court. The state
appealed and the case ended up in the Constitutional
Court. On 5 July 2002, it handed down a unanimous
verdict in TAC’s favour.
20
available resources a comprehensive and co-ordinated
programme to realise progressively the rights of pregnant
women and their newborn children to have access to
health services to combat mother-to-child transmission of
HIV”.
“When government appealed, we organised a march
to the Constitutional Court hearing in May 2002. The
sleepless nights of organising and preparing for the march
were worth it when we won the case,” says Pholokgolo
Ramothwala, TAC’s Gauteng co-ordinator at the time. That
The court found that South Africa’s Constitution “required
march was attended by 5,000 people and supported by a
the government to devise and implement within its
number of partner organisations, including Cosatu.
2010 Zapiro – Reprinted with permission – For more Zapiro cartoons visit www.zapiro.com
SAVE Our Babies
1.
Photo
[More PMTCT photos.]
21
22
SAVE Our Babies
The denialism and
quackery of KwaZuluNatal MEC, Peggy
Nkonyeni, further delayed
the rollout of PMTCT in
the province
Peggy and the good doctors
In January 2008, the Department of Health, after
prevention of mother-to-child transmission. Pfaff organised
much pressure from TAC, the South African National
AZT that was paid for by international donations.
AIDS Council and others, announced long-overdue
Soon after, Dr Mark Blaylock (also from Manguzi) was
new guidelines for the prevention of mother-to-child
suspended for putting a photo of Nkonyeni in the bin.
transmission. These guidelines for the first time
stipulated that dual therapy should be used in the public
health system to reduce HIV transmission to infants.
Dual therapy was a significant improvement on the
monotherapy TAC had campaigned for earlier in the
decade.
However, a month later, the KwaZulu-Natal MEC for
health, Peggy Nkonyeni, said that “antiretrovirals are
toxic and doctors who provide them are working for
pharmaceutical companies”.
TAC met with Zweli Mkhize (the ANC provincial
chairperson) and Nkonyeni, hoping to resolve the conflict.
At the meeting, Nkonyeni showed TAC members that she
was reading a book by the charlatan Matthias Rath. It
was clear that Nkonyeni could not be swayed and that
pregnant women would still be denied dual therapy.
After a press conference by TAC, the Rural Doctors
Association and the South African Medical Association,
Nkonyeni threatened legal action against TAC. Nothing
came of these threats. Disciplinary action against Dr Pfaff
A vicious crackdown followed during which she took
was withdrawn after national and international pressure,
disciplinary action against Dr Colin Pfaff, acting manager
but Nkonyeni continued to victimise doctors until she was
of Manguzi Hospital, for rolling out dual therapy for
replaced in May 2009.
23
Why mother-to-child transmission
prevention is important
TAC has been criticised by some academics for ignoring
The campaign did not put babies’ lives ahead of the
women’s reproductive rights in the prevention of mother-
lives of their mothers. Throughout the campaign, we
to-child transmission court case. I want to explain why
advocated for access to treatment for all people with HIV.
they are wrong. Women are disproportionately affected
That was why I joined TAC. The case that we took to the
by HIV in South Africa. HIV prevalence is higher among
Constitutional Court was a big victory not just for children
women than men. It is women who are generally
but for women as well, because it meant that women
care-givers. Women’s vulnerability to HIV is mainly a
should be treated with dignity, that they have the right
consequence of their economic and social status. Gender
to sexual reproductive health and that this right includes
inequality and gender-based violence are huge social
having a healthy child.
problems that make this situation worse. I realised that it
was not coincidence when I found myself amongst those
living with HIV at the age of 22 in 2001. Most of our
membership is made up of poor black women. TAC is a
home to people like me.
Young women like me enjoyed the outcome of this case.
When I decided I wanted a child, I went to my doctor to
seek advice and understand my options. The best option
for me and for my child was to go onto treatment. My
doctor advised me that starting treatment early would
TAC attracted many young HIV-positive women because of
reduce my viral load and increase my CD4 count, so I
our prevention of mother-to-child transmission campaign.
began antiretrovirals in 2004. My CD4 count was 269. I
Many women find out their HIV status while they are
planned to have my child in 2006. I started taking AZT,
pregnant. Before our court victory, there was no plan to
3TC and nevirapine. My child also got nevirapine syrup
prevent their unborn children from getting HIV.
after delivery and AZT for seven days after she was born.
I am still on the same treatment regimen today. I did not
Many women living with HIV during the years before
stop. My baby was tested at six weeks and she was HIV-
our court victory were coerced into sterilisation because
negative.
of their HIV status. This service was not offered to our
male partners. Those of us who wanted children needed
Women who choose to reproduce must have a right to
our sexual reproductive rights protected as guaranteed in
do so in a safe and healthy manner for mother and child.
section 27 of the South African Constitution. Prevention
of mother-to-child transmission was an entry point to
addressing sexual reproductive health and the rights of
women living with HIV. The women and men of TAC ran
24
TAC women who live with HIV would like to know what
our critics would have done if they were faced with this
situation themselves. Where were they when we needed
them most?
this campaign to voice the right of women living with HIV
Vuyiseka Dubula
to have children free of HIV.
TAC General Secretary
Photo: Gideon Mendel
SAVE Our Babies
25
26
TAC's
strategies
27
Photo: Zack Rosner
28
TAC's strategies
Using the law
The prevention of mother-to-child transmission case was
that mobilise and educate people so that communities use
one of many examples of TAC using the courts to fight for
the law to give effect to their own voices and their own
the rights of poor people.
issues.”
As Vuyiseka Dubula relates “Without our comrades in
Her colleague, Jonathan Berger, continues “TAC’s work
the AIDS Law Project, now SECTION27, our campaigns
is deeply grounded in the Constitution – in the rights it
would not have succeeded. We were also helped by other
recognises, in the obligations it imposes on the state and
human rights lawyers, especially the Legal Resources
the private sector, and in its recognition of the importance
Centre.”
of the rule of law to good governance, accountability and
Fatima Hassan, a lawyer who used to work on TAC cases,
explains “During the deadly period of AIDS denialism,
we worked with TAC on its legal cases and together won
a number of victories. We operated as activists, then as
service delivery. This understanding of the Constitution
has helped TAC to frame its demands in human rights
language and use the law as a tool for progressive social
change.”
human rights campaigners, and only then as lawyers.
Advocate Adila Hassim says “TAC has brought life to
We practised activist lawyering, using every democratic
the law and the Constitution. Litigation has always
institution and route – inspired by great lawyers of the
been accompanied by public awareness campaigns and
anti-apartheid movement. Working with TAC, first when
education about the particular law, conduct or policy
it was a small volunteer-based organisation and then as a
being challenged. When the judgment is favourable,
national organisation, I realised that the law alone cannot
TAC monitors implementation. TAC’s use of the law has
fully transform our society, only people can. The most
brought real improvements in people’s quality of life. It’s
valuable and transformative legal challenges are those
always an exciting experience to represent TAC!”
TAC comrades outside of the Cape High Court, Cape Town
29
Taking TAC to the people
“Mark and Zackie were up
there. They needed people
who speak the language of
people on the ground. TAC
had to go to the grassroots
where people were affected
and infected and wanting
information.”
George Chauke, TAC Gauteng member
Sipho Mthathi, TAC’s General Secretary from 2005–08,
says that “TAC didn’t begin as a grassroots movement.
It started with a few middle-class people [who] had
working-class roots. We knew we had to become a
movement based in communities to have any integrity or
we’d be just another NGO.”
“TAC needed a leadership of black people who lived in
the communities where TAC was organising, if possible
people living with HIV, and we needed to go out and
create that leadership,” says Mark Heywood.
“I think what built TAC was a combination of leadership
from different backgrounds, some of us with years of
political experience in the anti-apartheid movement…
We set out to build leadership in order to build a mass
base in the worst affected communities. TAC created a
new generation of post-1994 political and civil society
leaders,” says former TAC chairperson Zackie Achmat.
As explained by long-standing TAC member in KwaZuluNatal, Thabo Cele “We have TAC leaders from labour,
from medical and legal backgrounds, from the churches,
and people with a history of activism in communities and
nationally.”
TAC brought HIV science into South Africa’s workingclass communities and rural areas through our treatment
literacy programme. The programme educated and
empowered ordinary South Africans to understand how
HIV works in the body, how it can be treated and how its
transmission can be prevented.
30
TAC's strategies
Photo: Eric Miller, courtesy Bread for the World
31
“We can learn the science of
how HIV works”
“TAC’s key strategy for
mobilising was giving
people information.”
This understanding of the science of HIV and antiretroviral
Mandla Majola, TAC Khayelitsha co-ordinator
treatment they needed to survive. The programme became
treatment became one of TAC’s strongest tools in
mobilising the masses to demand access to HIV treatment
and prevention. Thousands joined forces to demand the
highly political and created a cadre of informed activists
that publically challenged the misinformation put out by
political, traditional and religious leaders during the years
of denialism.
Treatment literacy also proved to be a novel and effective
public health intervention. Patients on antiretroviral
therapy were counselled to take their regimens at the
same time every day and not to miss a dose. Mothers
were counselled on ways to reduce the risk of transmitting
HIV to their babies. Treatment literacy created the basis
for the successful rollout of antiretroviral therapy in poor
African communities.
“We believe so-called ordinary people can and must
learn the science of how HIV and AIDS work in the body,
how different treatments work, possible side effects,
opportunistic infections, and healthy lifestyle. When they
know what to ask for in the clinic, they can engage with
health workers and demand better services,” explained
Sipho Mthathi.
Before we were able to use HIV science as a political tool
to organise and mobilise communities, we had to learn
the science ourselves. In 2000, AIDS activists from the
New York-based organisations Treatment Action Group
and Act Up ran workshops in Cape Town, Durban and
Johannesburg to teach us about HIV science.
Photo: Eric Miller, courtesy Bread for the World
32
TAC's strategies
Learning from doctors
and other activists
As TAC members learned the science of HIV, we also
and scientists like Quarraisha and Slim Abdool Karim,
rolled out treatment education in communities. Since
Eric Goemaere, Francois Venter and Linda-Gail Bekker,
this initial collaboration, TAC has worked closely with
Gary Maartens, Robin Wood and nurses like Mphumi
international, regional and local partners to learn and to
Mantangana, as well as AIDS activists like Polly Clayden
share new information on HIV science and treatment.
and Simon Collins from HIV i-Base in London, and Gregg
Through this programme, TAC has developed educational
posters, pamphlets, booklets and magazines that are
translated into local languages and distributed across the
country.
“TAC’s treatment literacy training has been a massive
Gonsalves from the USA, formerly of the AIDS and Rights
Alliance for Southern Africa and Treatment Action Group.
We’ve also had a legion of dedicated volunteers from
Europe and North America donating their time to TAC over
the last ten years. Fine activists have developed through
the training,” says Nathan Geffen.
effort. We’ve been helped by so many people: doctors
Photo: Rainer Kwiotek
33
MSF Khayelitsha patients
celebrate the first year of
the programme.
Antiretrovirals can work
in Africa
As the HIV epidemic spread and death rates rose
“Soon it was clear that the Khayelitsha project was doing
throughout sub-Saharan Africa, international health
very well: 86% of the patients who started ARVs were
policy makers condemned Africans to death. The head of
still alive after two years and 70% had an undetectable
the United States Agency for International Development
viral load. The early successes of the Khayelitsha project
argued that the regimen involved in taking antiretroviral
contributed to sway the opinion of scientist, academics,
treatment was too complex for Africans to adhere to.
policymakers and donors towards the realisation that
TAC contended that access to medicine is a fundamental
treating patients with antiretroviral therapy in poor
human right for all people, not to be reserved solely for
countries could be done, and had to be done,” explains
the rich.
Gilles Van Cutsem, project co-ordinator for MSF
TAC and Médecins Sans Frontières partnered on a pilot
programme in Khayelitsha township outside Cape Town to
Many people learned about the facilities in Khayelitsha
demonstrate that, with access to the correct information,
and came to them. Sister Nothuthuzelo Ntwana of
antiretrovirals could be successfully rolled out in Africa.
Médecins Sans Frontières explained one of the challenges
In 2000, Médecins Sans Frontières set up three clinics
in Khayelitsha. The clinics initially provided antiretroviral
treatment to people suffering from AIDS who were in need
of immediate medication to survive. TAC’s volunteers
supported the rollout by teaching patients about HIV and
their medication regimens. This included explaining to
patients which pills were which, when they must be taken
and the possible side effects of each pill.
34
Khayelitsha.
they faced “Our services are accessible in clinics in
Khayelitsha…It is very hard for us at MSF clinics to
say we cannot take you because you do not stay in
Khayelitsha. It is sad to see the pain and fear in their
eyes. It is worse that we cannot refer them to other clinics
or hospitals for medication.”
TAC's strategies
1.
Photo
35
Myths of poisonous drugs and
biological warfare
When Médecins Sans Frontières first brought antiretroviral
treatment. In 2002, TAC scored a major victory when
therapy to Khayelitsha, we faced the dual challenge of
former president Nelson Mandela visited the home of TAC
community stigma and government denialism. People
chairperson, Zackie Achmat. At the time, Achmat was
were afraid to come forward and get tested. Those that did
refusing to take antiretrovirals until they became available
and that tested positive were afraid to take antiretrovirals.
in the public health system. Mandela convinced Achmat
TAC’s first co-ordinator, Colwyn Poole, describes what it
was like “Biological warfare against black South Africans.
Shortly thereafter Mandela visited the clinics in
That’s what a government spokesperson called the early
Khayelitsha, wearing one of TAC’s HIV-positive t-shirts.
HIV programmes in Khayelitsha. Women were beaten
or killed for revealing their HIV status but TAC volunteer
Helen Makebasana and four others began treatment in
May 2000.”
36
to begin taking medicines.
“The government was trying to portray us as doing harm,
but TAC gave us legitimacy in the community, explaining
that we were there to help people and save lives. MSF
would not have been able to begin work in Khayelitsha or
TAC members and volunteers worked tirelessly in
continue for so long without TAC,” says Dr Eric Goemaere
communities to provide accurate information on HIV and
of Médecins Sans Frontières.
TAC's strategies
37
Photo: Samantha Reinders
“I’m proud to be a
walking billboard in
TAC’s struggle for human
rights.”
George Chauke
“Seeing so many
beautiful people wearing
the t-shirt gave me
back some hope and
self-esteem. It gave me
courage to disclose.”
Ntombozuko Kraai
38
“The t-shirt symbolises
the lives that have been
lost and the sacrifices
that have been made. It
marks us as people with a
common purpose.”
Nomfundo Eland
“I was afraid ladies would
run away from me when
I approached them and
other men would say I
wasn’t a man.”
Sikhangele Mabulu
“Many activists have
said ‘Come to my funeral
in your t-shirts, tell
people what I went
through and what I did
in TAC – spread the
message!’ That’s what
we do.”
Nonkosi Khumalo
TAC's strategies
Wearing my HIV-positive shirt
TAC’s HIV-positive t-shirts were printed in 1999 as a tool to break down the secrecy,
shame and stigma that surrounded HIV. The t-shirts brandished the words “HIVPOSITIVE” onto the wearer’s chest. The shirts were prompted by the violent murder of
Gugu Dlamini. She was kicked, beaten and stoned to death after revealing that she was
HIV-positive. A photo of Gugu was printed on the back of TAC’s first t-shirts.
Zackie Achmat tells how he came up with the design “There is an apocryphal story
about the King of Denmark wearing a yellow star in solidarity with Jews during the Nazi
occupation of his country. The HIV-positive t-shirt serves a similar purpose. All people,
irrespective of their status, can wear it and show solidarity with people with HIV.”
Today the t-shirts have become an iconic symbol in South African society, representing
the struggle for human rights.
“The t-shirt promotes
openness and breaks
stigma. You’ll be
challenged ‘Are you HIVpositive?’ Then you
can start engaging with
people.”
Thembeka Majali
“It leads to discussions,
whisperings, the internal
acceptance that HIV is
real, and a culture of
coming forward.”
Phillip Mokoena
“People call me MaAIDS
when they see my
t-shirt and come with
questions.”
Maria Khambule
“Putting on the t-shirt
was my way of joining
the struggle – a relief.”
Beatrina Mhlongo
“When I got my first TAC t-shirt,
my mom wanted one too. She said
‘Let’s put on our t-shirts and walk
down the street to buy a snack.’
I asked her ‘Are you ready for
people to think you have HIV?’
and she said ‘I’ve been with you,
I’ve bathed you, I’ve taken you
to the hospice – we’re together
in this.’ So we walked down the
street with people staring – she
was lovely, parading around. Now
when I wear the t-shirt I remember
my late mom.”
Nokhwezi Hoboyi
39
40
Treatment
now
41
Photo: Eric Miller, courtesy Bread for the World
The struggle for treatment
our hands to raise money from the private sector, join our
“We are asking to get
access to medicines.
We understand they are
expensive, but if they
are something that can
make us live longer, then
government should make
a point of getting these
medicines.”
hand in raising money from each of us who will contribute
Flora Thobela
Access to treatment has been the centrepiece of our
work since TAC formed in 1998. During the early days
of the organisation, we fought against pharmaceutical
giants that were reluctant to drop the prices of medicines
despite skyrocketing profits and a government unwilling
to properly address an epidemic of crisis proportions.
We urgently needed medicines to suppress HIV and fight
opportunistic infections.
Speaking at TAC’s inception, Zackie Achmat encouraged
others “Join our hands to fight the drug companies, join
to save the lives of everyone who needs to be saved.”
These goals continue to drive us today.
42
TreatmentNow
Christopher Moraka and fluconazole
“It’s not as if HIV is pleasant, it’s not a joyride at all. You
Other people don’t feel this pain. They want to make
know that you are going.” These were the words of TAC
profit, you see.”
Gugulethu’s Christopher Moraka shortly before he died in
2000 of AIDS-related opportunistic infections, including
systemic thrush.
Zackie Achmat also spoke out about the high price of
the drug, known in South Africa by its brand name
Diflucan. “Tonight in southern Africa at least 300 people
Before passing, Moraka spoke out against the high price
will die because they cannot afford this. This is a drug
of fluconazole, a medicine patented by the pharmaceutical
called Diflucan. It is a drug that stops people who have
company Pfizer and used to treat fungal infections such as
thrush, people who have cryptococcal meningitis, people
systemic thrush, which he continually battled.
who have a range of illnesses from dying. And this little
Speaking to members of Parliament, he said “Companies
like Pfizer make a lot of profit. In 1999 Pfizer made
R6.5 billion profit. We ask them to lower the price of
drugs because we HIV-positive people suffer the most.
Comrades celebrating
Christopher Moraka’s
life and mourning his
death at his funeral
bottle will cost you R500. Drug companies are trying to
twist our government’s arm, to stop them from providing
good health care and quality health care for all, and also
accessible treatment for people who have AIDS.”
43
Patient rights before patent rights
Well-known South African
actor, Morne Visser, also
brought fluconazole into
the country for TAC. He
received a hero’s welcome
by TAC supporters at Cape
Town airport
44
In 2000, TAC asked Pfizer to
As part of the Campaign, TAC organised a visit by Zackie
drop the price of fluconazole
Achmat and Jack Lewis to Thailand, from where we
to R4 per 200 mg capsule, a
imported generic fluconazole at the cost of R1.78 per
figure still double the generic
capsule (in comparison to R29 per capsule in the South
price. In response, Pfizer
African public sector). We announced what we had done
promised that all people
in a press conference. It made newspaper headlines
living with HIV and battling
and generated debates and greater public understanding
cryptococcal meningitis who
about the high cost of medicines. A complaint was lodged
could not afford the treatment
against Achmat and he was nearly arrested for breaking
would be given it free of
the Medicines Act.
charge. However, those with systemic thrush – a more
Eventually Pfizer backed down and began donating
common disease – would still face exorbitant prices. Even
fluconazole to the public health system for the treatment
so, the company dragged its feet in cooperating with the
of systemic thrush as well. TAC continued to import
South African government in this regard, and on 13 July
generic fluconazole via the late Dr Steve Andrews.
2000, TAC announced its Defiance Campaign against
We contracted a chemist to distribute over 100,000
Patent Abuse and AIDS Profiteering at the International
fluconazole pills to doctors and health facilities across the
AIDS Conference in Durban.
country.
TreatmentNow
45
46
TreatmentNow
Beating the drug companies in court
In 1997, South Africa passed the Medicines and Related
Substances Control Amendment Act, which allowed for
the substitution of brand-name medicines with generic
medicines once a patent had expired, the importation
of generic medications, and a transparent pricing
mechanism.
Despite this being signed into law, the Pharmaceutical
Manufacturers’ Association (PMA), together with 40
multinational drug companies, attempted to stop the Act
by going to court against the South African government.
The trial was delayed for three years, during which
time the Act did not go into effect and greater access to
medicines was severely impeded.
TAC fought on the side of government, offering legal
support, educating our members about the PMA and
thing should be an apology, that 400,000 people who
pharmaceutical greed worldwide, and organising
were supposed to be here are not here. And these people
demonstrations worldwide on 5 March 2001.
are not here because they have died, basically because of
Speaking outside the court in 2001, Mazibuko Jara said
“[The PMA is] making the drugs inaccessible to us. We
what the pharmaceutical companies have succeeded in
doing.”
are here today to say we are the people living with AIDS
The PMA dropped their court action on 19 April 2001. It
and you are the drug companies that produce these
was a big blow against the pharmaceutical industry.
drugs. Work with us in order to deal with HIV/AIDS. Do
not oppose our government and take it to court when our
government wants to meet our public health needs.”
But immediately after the victory, Health Minister Manto
Tshabalala-Msimang said in a press conference that
antiretrovirals would not be made available. She did
Former president of Cosatu, Willie Madisha, demanded
not even thank TAC for our assistance. After that, our
an apology from the drug companies “I think that the first
relationship with her became steadily worse.
47
Hazel Tau versus big pharma
In 2002, the price of antiretroviral treatment was far
required. But I cannot afford to pay even R1,000 a month
too high at over R2,000 per month. TAC and the AIDS
for this. If the prices of antiretrovirals were reduced to
Law Project decided to lodge a complaint against two
between R400 to R500 a month, I could afford treatment
of the biggest offenders, pharmaceutical companies
on my present salary. I am aware that I will have to
GlaxoSmithKline and Boehringer Ingelheim.
sacrifice some things, but I know that this treatment will
In her affidavit to the Competition Commission, TAC
member and the first complainant Hazel Tau wrote “I
“I cannot afford to pay the prices the drug companies
am an adult female residing in Soweto, Gauteng. I am a
charge for antiretroviral treatment.”
single woman. I am also a breadwinner in my family. I
was diagnosed with HIV in 1991…Since April 2002, I
have not been so well. I have had an increasing number
of opportunistic infections including thrush and a lung
infection, which was suspected to be pneumonia. My
CD4 has dropped to 168. I have also lost a lot of weight.
I weighed about 75 kilograms up to about 2000. I have
lost over 25 kilograms since then.
48
help me and keep me healthy.
In October 2003, the Commission found evidence
supporting Tau’s allegations and indicated that they would
take the complaint further. As a result, negotiations took
place between the companies and TAC and the AIDS Law
Project. In December 2003, both GlaxoSmithKline and
Boehringer agreed to allow generic companies to sell their
medicines both in South Africa and to other sub-Saharan
African countries. It was a huge victory in the fight for
“I am aware that I need to go onto treatment given
greater access to medicines and prices soon came down.
that my CD4 has dropped below 200. Once a person’s
Today, government pays just over R100 for a month’s
CD4 count is below this level, antiretroviral treatment is
supply of antiretroviral treatment for one individual.
TreatmentNow
Fired for saving lives
In 2000, the Greater Nelspruit Rape Intervention Project
care room or with providing post-exposure prophylaxis,
(GRIP) began providing antiretrovirals at Rob Ferreira
composed of antiretrovirals, for rape survivors. Along with
Hospital for rape survivors. But the Mpumalanga health
concerned health workers across the country, TAC and the
department had instructed hospital doctors not to
AIDS Law Project demonstrated in support of the doctors
prescribe antiretrovirals.
in their fight, which dragged on for years.
Nevertheless, some doctors, including Dr Malcolm Naude,
In 2003, the Department of Health settled out of court
believed it was unethical not to do so and they continued
with Dr von Mollendorf. It coincided with a report that
to prescribe antiretrovirals.
the Department had misspent R6 million that had been
AIDS denialist Health MEC Sibongile Manana organised
budgeted for medicines in the province.
for GRIP to be evicted from the hospital. She also
In 2007, Judge CJ Musi ruled that Dr Malcolm Naude’s
suspended, dismissed or failed to renew the contracts of
dismissal was unfair and described Manana’s rule as
health workers who supported providing antiretrovirals,
“tyrannical” and “dictatorial” and some Department
including Dr Thys von Mollendorf and Dr Naude. Her
witnesses as “liars”.
supporters started harassing all those involved in the
49
TAC takes to
the streets
TAC voted at the 2002 national congress to increase
the use of marches, as well as a countrywide campaign
of civil disobedience, to pressure the state to deliver a
national treatment plan and antiretroviral programme.
The pressure was primarily directed at Health Minister
Tshabalala-Msimang and Trade and Industry Minister Alec
Erwin.
On 14 February 2003, nearly 15,000 people took
part in TAC’s Stand Up for Our Lives march to the
opening of Parliament in Cape Town. We handed over a
memorandum to government which made it clear that the
state either had to deliver a treatment plan or face civil
disobedience.
50
TreatmentNow
1.
Photo
[There are dozens of beautiful photos of this march,
most of them taken by Faizel Slamang and Pupa Fumba.
Nathan has a good deal of them on his computer. They
are also on the website. We could also use the Mandela
poster.]
51
Dying for treatment
Government failed to deliver a treatment plan and so TAC
There was a history of civil disobedience against
launched its civil disobedience campaign, titled Dying for
apartheid. Patrick Mdletshe, provincial chairperson of
Treatment, in March 2001.
TAC KwaZulu-Natal explains “Our leaders taught us non-
“What civil disobedience means is that we accept
government, we accept the legitimacy of government
The campaign was met with violence in KwaZulu-Natal.
sacrifice to change that policy, and the sacrifice we make
Mdletshe recalls “We got the message from our co-
is being prepared to go to jail,” explains Zackie Achmat.
ordinator ‘Meet 8am at Durban City Hall and cover your
at the time. He says “It was a national plan to launch civil
disobedience – same time, same day, at police stations
in Cape Town, Gauteng, Durban. The volunteers signed
t-shirt.’ Mandla was waiting. He reminded us how to do
civil disobedience and then told us to jump into taxis to
CR Swart police station. We walked into the charge office
and showed our t-shirts.”
consent forms saying they were prepared to be arrested,
In Durban and Cape Town TAC members said they would
that they would have their medication with them and their
not leave the station until Tshabalala-Msimang and Erwin
children looked after. To prevent any leak or sabotage I
were arrested. Police in Durban responded by calling for
was the only one in the province who knew when and
snipers, dogs, and a motorbike squad. They turned a hose
where we were going.”
on the crowd at close range, injuring some, including a
“After consulting lawyers and getting overwhelming
support from members, we decided to lay a charge of
pregnant woman. TAC organiser Thabo Cele was hurt
quite badly.
culpable homicide against the former minister of health,
In Cape Town and Johannesburg, civil disobedience
Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and the former minister of
did not result in violence. Although TAC members were
trade and industry, Alec Erwin,” continues Sifiso Nkala.
arrested in Cape Town, they were immediately released.
“People were free to participate or not.”
52
joined sit-ins, bus boycotts, pickets and marches.”
and we want to change its policy. But we are prepared to
Mandla Majola was co-ordinating TAC in KwaZulu-Natal
TAC allies also staged
die-ins and used other
forms of civil disobedience
around the world. Here a
Paris action.
violent strategies of civil disobedience. In high school we’d
TreatmentNow
53
Government relents
After years of campaigning, Cabinet finally approved the
start and we’ve been engaging with government HIV
National Operational Plan on Comprehensive Care and
co-ordinators and visiting treatment sites. We want to
Treatment for HIV (Operational Plan) on 19 November
set up an AIDS forum with NGOs, local and provincial
2003. Within the first year of the Plan’s implementation,
it became clear that the programme lacked a formal
implementation timetable to ensure targets were met. It
fell short of its target of 54,000 people on treatment by
March 2004 (at which time only 15,000 people were
rollout a success. We’re training six people per district
to do treatment literacy. Our branches are educating
communities through door-to-door campaigns, flyers,
receiving treatment).
posters and workshops.”
In order to avoid further litigation by TAC, the state agreed
Xolani Kunene, former TAC KwaZulu-Natal provincial
to purchase antiretrovirals in the interim before a tender
co-ordinator, also explains TAC’s role “We are training
was finalised. The programme finally started properly in
branches to counsel and prepare patients for treatment
April 2004. TAC was involved in the rollout, prepping
to lessen the burden on clinics. We’re working on an
communities through treatment literacy campaigns and
helping health workers to prepare for the task before
them.
Johanna Ncala, former TAC treatment literacy coordinator, says “It’s a week before the rollout is due to
54
government so we can work together to make the
antiretroviral manual and we’ll also use TV and radio for
community education. Through our Treatment Project,
we’ll transfer people to government clinics and also help
to monitor the rollout.”
TreatmentNow
After years of
campaigning, government
finally announced a
national treatment plan
in 2003. TAC helped
communities prepare for
the rollout.
55
Photo: David Chancellor/ International Federation of the Red Cross
56
TreatmentNow
The Treatment Project
We realised that the initial government programme
Victor Lakay recalls his time with the Project “As a person
would not reach more than a third of those who needed
living openly with HIV and also a patient of the Treatment
treatment. Also alarming was the fact that within the
Project, I was comforted by TAC’s belief that everyone has
first six months of 2003, TAC had lost more than 100
a right to life. So it was remarkable then that for every TAC
members whose lives could have been saved with
member treated, the TAC Treatment Project committed to
medication. As an emergency response to the absence of
treating a person in the community who was unrelated to
a comprehensive government programme, TAC launched
TAC. I was lucky enough, but the sad reality of denialism
the Treatment Project in 2003, rolling out HIV tests,
meant that many more lives were lost that could have
CD4 tests and antiretrovirals to a number of activists and
been saved.”
others who couldn’t afford them. It therefore provided a
lifeline to members in need of treatment. The Project also
took over the distribution of generic fluconazole, which
TAC originally began to import in 2000 as part of the
Christopher Moraka Defiance Campaign. Through the
Project, TAC worked with public and private facilities to
Victor Lakay and Uncle
John Vollenhoven
were both recipients of
the Treatment Project
allowing them to access
anti-retrovirals and other
essential medicines.
distribute over 85,000 capsules of generic fluconazole,
carried out nearly 3,500 CD4 cell count tests and covered
the cost of a range of other drugs, including antiretrovirals,
The Western Cape’s Atlantis branch of TAC started in
2002/03, at the height of the Treatment Project. Terens
Crow recalls “We had old aunties, students, workers, the
late Uncle John Vollenhoven who got a new lease of life
through the Treatment Project.”
As the antiretroviral rollout scaled up, the Treatment
Project was able to transfer patients to the public sector
treatment programme.
and support to HIV-positive people.
57
58
QuaCks and
denialists
59
Rath’s deadly quackery
“Many people in
Khayelitsha were defaulting
on their treatment and
some passed away because
of Rath’s lies. His ‘miracle
cure’ was a huge challenge
to our treatment literacy
work, which had been going
well.”
Despite government’s reluctance, by 2004 the treatment
Vathiswa Kamkam
organisation, also backed Rath. They distributed his
rollout was gathering momentum and TAC branches
were mobilising communities to get tested and access
treatment. It was then that Matthias Rath and his
Foundation appeared on the scene peddling multivitamins
as a cure for HIV, cancer and other diseases. In early
2005, Rath set up clinics in Khayelitsha and other Cape
Town townships.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang was a strong
supporter of Rath, even though courts in other countries
had ruled against him. SANCO, the ANC-aligned civic
pamphlets, worked in his ‘clinics’, recruited patients and
endorsed his advertisements.
“At last a cure for HIV – Dr Rath’s vitamins. That’s what
we heard at a SANCO meeting in Khayelitsha late in
2004,” remembers Neliswa Nkwali. “TAC decided to
investigate. We went as ‘patients’ to Rath’s clinic and the
houses of his agents. We invited his people to our support
group, and we reported back.”
Advertisements like the following appeared in The
Sowetan, Daily Sun, Mail & Guardian, and other papers
“The Dr Rath Health Foundation Africa has the support
2010 Zapiro – Reprinted
of our Minister of Health and our Government…Unlike
with permission – For
toxic antiretroviral drugs, these vitamins are safe. Trust our
Government and those who support it…Don’t fall for dirty
Vitacell was one
of Rath’s main
products sold as
an alternative
to scientifically
provern
antiretrovirals.
60
tricks: TAC targets poor communities as markets for the
drug industry…and pays crowds to demonstrate.”
NAPWA also distributed Rath’s products and sided with
him when TAC took him to court. The Traditional Healers
Organisation staged demonstrations at TAC offices in
support of Rath.
more Zapiro cartoons
visit www.zapiro.com
Quacks and Denialists
62
Quacks and Denialists
The end of Rath
In the first of two court cases, TAC asked the Cape High
“TAC had marches, pickets, court hearings
and press conferences to fight Rath’s
propaganda. We had calls from all over
the Western Cape about Rath agents, even
doctors asking us for help.”
Court to stop Rath from defaming the organisation. Rath
Fredalene Booysen, TAC Khayelitsha district manager.
TAC and the Legal Resources Centre led a legal battle to
stop Rath and his propaganda, with strong support from
Médecins Sans Frontières, the South African Medical
Association, the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society
and other health workers.
had continually been producing advertisements, posters
and statements accusing TAC of being a front for the
pharmaceutical industry. The court cleared TAC’s name
and interdicted Rath from making these claims.
In a second case, TAC filed papers asking the Cape
High Court to find Rath’s clinical trial and distribution
of unregistered medicines unlawful. After years of legal
wrangling, the court finally ruled in June 2008 that Rath’s
advertising was false, misleading and unlawful. The
court also declared that he was unlawfully distributing
medicines and conducting unauthorised clinical trials. The
minister of health was held responsible for not enforcing
the Medicines Act.
This was a major victory for TAC and its allies, but serious
problems remain with the regulation of medicines in
South Africa and many quacks still sell their snake oils
without any concern for the law.
2010 Zapiro – Reprinted with permission – For more Zapiro cartoons visit www.zapiro.com
63
The end of state-supported
AIDS denialism?
Two separate studies have
estimated that delays in
introducing a treatment
programme cost more than
300,000 avoidable deaths.
A major blow for Health Minister Tshabalala-Msimang
came at the International AIDS Conference in Toronto in
2006. The South African government’s stand featured
garlic, lemons and African potatoes – the minister’s idea
of treatment for AIDS. Infuriated TAC members at the
Conference occupied the stand in protest. Then Mark
Heywood spoke at a plenary session in front of thousands
of delegates and called for the minister’s removal from
2010 Zapiro – Reprinted with permission.
For more Zapiro cartoons visit www.zapiro.com
office. This was very bad publicity for government and
soon after they compromised and agreed to negotiate the
National Strategic Plan. Tshabalala-Msimang fell ill and
during her illness much of the Plan was negotiated.
In this period, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge gained
increasing prominence as the deputy minister of health
and played an important part in the development of
the Plan. She was quoted in the media as speaking
accurately about HIV and criticising the handling of HIV
in South Africa. She paid for her straight talking when
she was dismissed by Mbeki in August 2007. He cited a
flimsy justification relating to Madlala-Routledge’s travel
arrangements. The move backfired in the media and
Mbeki was left looking stubborn and dictatorial.
Mbeki lost control of the ANC in 2007. In September
2008, Kgalema Motlanthe became president. Motlanthe
moved Tshabalala-Msimang from her position and put her
into an unimportant ministerial post. She was replaced
by Barbara Hogan, who immediately made the removal
of AIDS denialism a priority. When Jacob Zuma became
president in May 2009, Hogan was replaced by Aaron
Motsoaledi, a doctor with scientifically sound views about
HIV. The era of state-sponsored AIDS denialism was
finally over, or so we hope.
64
Quacks and Denialists
1.
Photo
[Maybe pull a photo off the youtube
video of TAC occupying the SA govt
stand at AIDS2006.]
Photo: Mail and Guardian (permission in progress)
65
66
TAC on the
Ground
67
68
Photo: Gerd Hoeffchen, courtesy Bread for the World
Tac on the Ground
Grassroots activism
TAC set up its first offices in Johannesburg, Cape Town
many with no income and no employment, who have
and Durban in 1999. TAC was able to mobilise and
given up their time,” explains Vuyiseka Dubula.
operate at a community level by establishing branches
Through branches, TAC was able to mobilise large-scale
across the country. This model of social mobilisation
support for campaigns, including mobilising over 15,000
and organisation was adopted from the struggle against
people to march to Parliament to demand a treatment
apartheid.
plan. Our branches were also uniquely placed to respond
Branch members operated in their own communities,
to local challenges.
educating others on HIV science and establishing
Mashudu Mfomande, TAC Mopani co-ordinator, explains
adherence clubs and support groups.
the role of the branch “Organising starts at branch level,
“TAC grew in members because people needed space
to identify local challenges and make an impact. Know
to disclose their HIV status and get support. Members
your community, bring treatment literacy to our work and
sustained branches. TAC is mostly the work of volunteers,
to our allies.”
Photo: Eric Miller, courtesy Bread for the World
and it is not always about big marches. Organisers need
69
Spreading TAC across
the country
TAC now has community level branches operating across
the country. Branches are supported by TAC’s six district
offices. Today TAC has over 10,000 members.
Gert Sibande
Tel: 017 811 5085
Mopani
Tel: 039 253 1951
Limpopo
Johannesburg
Khayelitsha
Tel: 021 364 5489
North West
Province
Mpumalanga
Gauteng
Free State
KwaZulu-Natal
Northen Cape
Eastern Cape
Ekurhuleni
Tel: 011 873 4130
Umgungundlovu
Tel: 033 394 0845
Western Cape
Cape Town
70
Lusikisiki
Tel: 039 253 1951
Tac on the Ground
71
Photo: Eric Miller, courtesy Bread for the World
72
Tac on the Ground
“Apartheid classified me as coloured”
TAC in the Western Cape
TAC began to mobilise in the Western Cape in early 1999.
“We had to overcome barriers in our
struggle for treatment. Apartheid
classified me as coloured. I started
going to TAC meetings in 2000
and asking the people next to me
to translate. Later I organised
meetings in coloured areas like
Mitchell’s Plain.”
Fredalene Booysen
“We started in Gugulethu with our
personal networks of friends and
comrades, then went walkabout
and talked to people in homes
on the street, in buses and taxis,
shebeens, shops and clinics.”
Sipho Mthathi
“Once Gugs, Nyanga and New
Crossroads had strong branches
we targeted Old Crossroads and
Phillipi.”
“In TAC we are not comrades who
only toyi-toyi. The community can
see TAC in Khayelitsha helping
people after shack fires and
mobilising against rape and other
violent crime.”
Mandla Majola
Nobom Twaise
Photo(left): Darryl Cotton
73
Fighting for health workers
In May 2007, facing terrible working conditions, health
the summary dismissals without hearing of no less
workers went on strike. Health workers are considered
than 41 health workers in Khayelitsha’s health facilities
essential workers. Cosatu had over the years called on
unlawful because it will adversely impact on the provision
government to sign an essential services agreement with
of essential health services. TAC is acting on behalf of
unions, which would guarantee that essential services
the class of people with chronic medical conditions who
continue to run during a strike but also allow health
depend on Khayelitsha’s public health facilities.”
workers to participate in strike action. But the state failed
to do this.
said that we were seeking legal relief “to ensure the
On 31 May, workers at a facility in Khayelitsha, with the
reasonable, rational and effective functioning of health
facility manager, agreed to a skeleton staff system that
services including emergency, chronic, child and
ensured that treatment for patients with chronic illnesses
reproductive health services at the Khayelitsha clinics.”
would still be available, as well as emergency services.
On 26 June, Judge Siraj Desai handed down judgment
Nevertheless, the Western Cape government simply
and granted an interim interdict ordering the respondents
dismissed 41 health workers in Khayelitsha during the
to restore the reasonable functioning of health care
strike, effectively destroying health worker morale and
services in Khayelitsha. Government appealed the
crippling the health system.
judgment but because the strike ended and the workers
TAC immediately took action and filed court papers. Our
were reinstated, the case went no further.
press statement read “We have asked the court to declare
74
Mandla Majola deposed the founding affidavit. He
Tac on the Ground
1.
Photo
[There should be some photos in Equal
Treatment on the strike.]
75
TAC Limpopo
members
“In 2002 there was no voice
about HIV” TAC in Limpopo
“In 2002 there was no voice about
HIV in Limpopo. We did not know
anyone who was living openly.
All we heard was ‘prevent it or
you will die!’ We heard about TAC
through national media. Oupa
Fazi contacted the TAC office and
Nonkosi Khumalo came to help
us set up an office in Elim. Oupa
set up branches in Limpopo and
inducted a group of leaders. From
there more branches were set up
across the province.”
Thulani Silaule
“In 2004, home-based carers in my
village told me about TAC’s office
in Elim. I came back with posters
and pamphlets and we started a
Mailskop branch.”
Adam Malapa
76
“The Zionist Christian Church in
Limpopo has millions of followers.
In 2004, our HIV-positive shirts
were banned as demonic but these
days many church members wear
the t-shirt and treatment literacy
is in demand. Some people say
TAC members who belonged to
the church helped bring about this
change.”
Nkensani Mavasa
Tac on the Ground
1.
Photo
[FRONT COVER OF ONE OF LIMPOPO’S DISTRICT NEWSLETTERS.
CAPTION: Limpopo’s district newsletter, edited by Adam Malapa]
77
“We took government head-on”
TAC in Mpumalanga
“In 2000, Mpumalanga had
a denialist health MEC. She
didn’t want antiretrovirals
in ‘her’ province so she
stopped NGOs from
providing antiretrovirals
to rape survivors and
victimised doctors that did.
We had to be strategic and
work hard.”
“I joined a TAC branch in
2003 when there was only
one staff member in the
province, Thembane. I used
to visit clinics with her to
raise awareness. We opened
more and more branches
and trained comrades on
treatment literacy.”
Isaya Sibiya
Bheki Khoza
“We had people who led
the way, breaking down
stigma. Many people, even
government officials, come
to me for help now.”
Thandi Maluka
“In 2004, we took
government head-on in the
national PMTCT [prevention
of mother-to-child
transmission] campaign. It
was our first campaign and
we covered a lot of ground,
visiting over a thousand
homes as well as schools,
churches and shebeens.”
Bheki Khoza
78
Tac on the Ground
79
“Something that amazed the whole
world” TAC in KwaZulu-Natal
“We built TAC branches
first in urban areas, then in
more rural areas. We went
door to door, to taxi ranks,
shebeens, churches, we
worked with community
organisations and gave talks
at clinics. We were called
anti-government, antiANC, and sometimes it felt
dangerous to be wearing the
t-shirt, but we were losing
comrades daily and that was
fuelling our anger and our
energy.”
Patrick Mdletshe
“TAC began mobilising in
KwaZulu-Natal in 1999.
We decided to organise
a Global AIDS March for
Access to Treatment during
the International AIDS
Conference coming to
Durban in 2000.”
Zackie Achmat
80
“I was doing research on
youth and HIV when I met
TAC in Durban. At first I
wanted information but I
was drawn closer by the
spirit, the vision and the
understanding. It was very
different from learning
about HIV from the ivory
towers of university.”
Nonkosi Khumalo
“I wore the white ‘HIVpositive’ t-shirt at the
launch of Tongaat branch.
It was my first meeting with
a crowd of people living
with HIV. There were TAC
and National Association
of People Living with AIDS
comrades, traditional
leaders and community
members. I was feeling
brave and strong to join
something that amazed the
whole world.”
Gugu Mpungose
Tac on the Ground
“We get no treatment in here - we are
dying in numbers”
It all started in 2005 when a Westville Prison inmate
Photo: Darryl Cotton
phoned TAC in KwaZulu-Natal. He said “We get no
treatment here. We are dying in numbers.”
TAC member Sthembiso Mkhize went to the prison as a
visitor, hiding consent forms under his shirt. He smuggled
the forms out with the prisoners’ statements.
So began a campaign by TAC and the AIDS Law Project
to get medicines to prisoners. There was endless red tape.
During a visit to the prison, TAC members were stopped
by armed guards with dogs. The doctor and nurses that
had come to take bloods for CD4 were not allowed into
the prison.
We sued the Department of Correctional Services on
behalf of 15 prisoners who needed antiretroviral therapy.
TAC rallied outside the courthouse throughout the case.
In June 2006, the Durban High Court ordered the
“Some ex-prisoners became TAC volunteers as soon as
Department of Correctional Services to provide
they were released. It helped them change their lives and
antiretrovirals to Westville prisoners. Government appealed
integrate into the community,” recalls Phillip Mokoena,
but in August was ordered to comply with the court and to
TAC deputy chief operating officer.
submit a prison treatment plan within a month.
“When I saw TAC on TV, I organised prisoners to toyi-toyi
The Westville Prison case established the constitutional
for treatment. From prison I came straight to TAC and
right of prisoners nationwide to access antiretroviral
today I am a community health advocate. I am in the
therapy. Sadly, some of the complainants and other
street committee and I have positive dreams for my life,
inmates passed away before the court victory.
my family and my community,” says Thobela Vika.
81
“We’ve seen people grow in TAC”
TAC in Gauteng
“In March 1999, activists
took to the streets in
Braamfontein and
Soweto and visited
clinics, hospitals, schools,
shopping centres and
bars.”
Mark Heywood
“The monthly meetings at
AIDS Consortium became
a university of HIV/
AIDS. Scientists, doctors,
health workers, unionists,
church leaders, lawyers
and people living with
HIV/AIDS met to discuss
treatment and how to
lobby government.”
Lefa Tlhame
82
Tac on the Ground
“At first I think we were a top-down
organisation. Branch members used
to keep quiet in meetings but now
they participate actively and show
leadership in dealing with problems
at local clinics.”
Xolani Kunene
“I joined TAC in Tembisa after they
helped my neighbour when her
daughters passed away. I formed a
support group at Pick ‘n Pay where
I was a packer, volunteered as a
home-based carer, educated at
clinics and preached about HIV in
churches.”
“What TAC gave us is more than
money – treatment literacy has
empowered us. We’d give training at
every meeting. We’ve seen people
grow in TAC. We’ve lost count of
how many have gone to other jobs,
thanks to training and experience in
TAC.”
“My CD4 count was 3 and I was
waiting to die when a hospice
nurse said ‘Call my nephew at
TAC.’ I never thought I would
speak in public or go to places like
Mexico or Canada. Through TAC
I’ve become a part of the wide
world but I also spent time at the
hospice and in local communities.
TAC has made me a human rights
activist, not only for HIV-positive
people but for prison inmates,
refugees, lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender and intersex people,
everyone.”
Mlugisi Dlamini
Nokhwezi Hoboyi, TAC Ekurhuleni co-ordinator.
Magdaline Phuthi
83
Tooo much!
84
Tac on the Ground
Photo: Nick Fletcher, courtesy SING.
“Desperation”
TAC in the Eastern Cape
In 2000, Mandla Majola and Dr Eric Goemaere from
Médecins Sans Frontières visited the Eastern Cape,
looking for a rural site at which to set up an antiretroviral
clinic. When peer educator Portia Ngcaba heard them
speak, she volunteered for TAC “out of desperation”. From
2001, TAC became active in the Eastern Cape.
“In 2002, we held a night
vigil outside the provincial
hospital because they were
not treating people with
AIDS, just sending them
home to die. Many people
eventually joined us.”
Thabang Maseko and Anele Yawa
“People would see the
t-shirt and ask ‘Where is
your office and how can we
join?’”
Sister Ivy Ntlangeni
85
86
Tac on the Ground
Getting treatment to rural areas
After TAC and Médecins Sans Frontières successfully
as poor infrastructure, clinics without electricity, long
rolled out antiretroviral therapy in Khayelitsha, many still
distances between facilities across extremely difficult
argued that it would not work in rural areas. So TAC and
terrain, and too few doctors and nurses.
Médecins Sans Frontières set off for rural Lusikisiki in
the Eastern Cape. The work of Dr Hermann Reuter was
invaluable in making this project work.
To address this, Dr Reuter worked to decentralise care.
He organised mobile clinics and even mobile doctors,
visiting different areas daily. He implemented task-shifting
In 2003, Médecins Sans Frontières began to provide
to address the serious shortage of skilled health workers.
antiretrovirals in the area. At first, residents of Lusikisiki
Nurses were trained to initiate and manage treatment and
were deeply suspicious of both Médecins Sans Frontières
TAC volunteers were trained to assist nurses and provide
and TAC. We had to undo misperceptions about HIV and
treatment literacy and adherence support. Antiretroviral
treatment.
therapy was rolled out at a community level.
“We went into villages and stayed there, living the same
The programme was a success and today Lusikisiki
life. In the morning we visited homes, clinics, schools,
remains one of TAC’s most active areas.
churches, taxi ranks, shebeens and community imbizos.
In the afternoons and evenings we held treatment literacy
workshops. We used treatment literacy to mobilise in
communities,” recalls Sister Ivy Ntlangeni.
“Adherence counsellors, community health workers, and
empowered service users are the key elements behind
programme success – a success reflected in highly
satisfactory clinical outcomes, excellent retention, low
“We fetched water from the river, cooked and ate with the
mortality, and universal treatment coverage,” said a
people, and worked day and night,” says Portia Ngcaba.
Médecins Sans Frontières and Eastern Cape Department
Dr Reuter worked tirelessly to develop a system that could
of Health publication in October 2006.
deliver antiretrovirals despite numerous challenges such
87
Bullets and medicines in Queenstown
Mziwethu Faku recalls “In 2004 fewer than ten people
on the hospital task team. Mrs Zephe was ‘away’ so
out of every hundred in the Eastern Cape who needed
we staged a peaceful sit-in in the hospital corridors. Mr
antiretrovirals were on treatment. TAC activists and
Mosia, the hospital manager, instructed the police to
support group members were among the 55 people who
remove us for ‘disturbing the patients’.”
died on the waiting list of 142 people from Nomzamo and
Ilinge, feeder clinics for Frontier Hospital in Queenstown.
The hospital sent a letter ordering clinics to close the
waiting lists but we couldn’t even get a meeting with the
antiretroviral therapy manager, Mrs Zephe.”
88
Gonyela later wrote “The Queenstown campaign received
worldwide media coverage when police dispersed
TAC demonstrators with tear gas, batons and rubber
bullets. The police brutality was condemned by many
Phillip Mokoena continues “When district co-ordinator
organisations, including UNAIDS. TAC laid a charge
Mziwethu Faku reported this at a provincial meeting, we
with the Independent Complaints Directorate against the
decided to take to the streets to mobilise communities
hospital manager and the police. We gave an ultimatum
from Queenstown up to Port Elizabeth and down to
to hospital management and the board ‘Respond within
Lusikisiki. The night before the march about 500 slept
a week or face a bigger march.’ Just before the deadline,
in a Catholic Church in Queenstown. We sang songs
Health MEC Goqwana called TAC to a meeting. He
like ‘Thula mama, kutheni sifela mahala?’ until the
promised that an ANC provincial team would assess and
walls echoed. We were young roaring lions of TAC, tired
advise on the hospital’s antiretroviral programme within
of seeing our brothers and sisters dying, demanding
six months and asked us to call off the march…
change.”
Images courtesy of CMT
Sipho Mthathi, Linda Mafu, Nathan Geffen and Masizole
“Over 1,000 people marched to Frontier Hospital and the
Faku explains “On 12 July 2005, 700 TAC and
police station and this time the reaction was peaceful.
community members marched from Freedom Square in
Over the next few months Frontier Hospital took on
the town centre to Frontier Hospital. Even nurses joined
treatment literacy practitioners. TAC representatives joined
us. Our demands? Twenty more people on antiretrovirals
the antiretroviral task team. Four hospitals in the district
every month and people with HIV and TAC representatives
were accredited as antiretroviral sites. Progress!”
Tac on the Ground
89
Photo: Molahlehi Taba
Sello Mokhalipi speaking
in Bloemfontein. (Left)
Sello’s leadership was
indispensable in helping
to revert the Free State
crisis of 2008. The TAC
national office also staged
an action in Cape Town.
(Right)
The crisis in the Free State:
30 deaths a day
Sello Mokhalipi, TAC’s leader in the Free State, recalls
African HIV Clinicians Society estimated that during the
“On 13 September 1996 my entire world crashed when
moratorium, which lasted four months, there were 30
I was told I was HIV-positive. Surrounded by stigma and
extra deaths a day.
discrimination, I was just waiting for death. Then TAC
gave me back my life: access to treatment, training and
courage to fight for human rights. I left Gauteng to grow
TAC in the Free State where the rollout was very slow.”
government to lift the moratorium through letters,
pickets and engagement with the South African National
AIDS Council. The Free State AIDS Coalition was
In late 2008, Sello alerted TAC to the crisis in the Free
formed, bringing together civil society organisations in
State “The clinic staff said they were instructed not to put
the province. TAC and the AIDS Law Project provided
new patients on antiretroviral therapy and many patients
advocacy training for the Coalition and Sello became the
already on treatment were forced to default as they could
Coalition spokesperson.
not access treatment.”
In March 2009, the moratorium was finally lifted. TAC
Before the moratorium, the antiretroviral rollout was
and the Coalition continue to monitor the situation in
already problematic and almost a quarter of patients
the Free State. However, problematic budgeting by the
in the rollout died while waiting for treatment. The
provincial health department continues to affect health
moratorium threw the province further into crisis and
care delivery in the province.
resulted in hundreds of avoidable deaths. The Southern
90
TAC and the AIDS Law Project put pressure on
Tac on the Ground
1.
Photo
91
92
Defending
our Rights
93
Campaign against rape
Akona Ntsabula says “I was beaten up, raped and left
half naked with petrol poured on me. Breaking the silence
saved my life. I joined TAC in 2003 and through TAC I
am where I am today. I learned to live positively with HIV
and accept that I am a rape survivor. Today I am an out
and proud lesbian with a partner who loves me and my
children. Women’s leadership training empowered me to
fight for women’s rights anywhere.”
Our national rape statistics are the worst in the world for
a country not at war. Violence against women is a major
public health and human rights problem in South Africa,
which the National Strategic Plan identifies as one of the
factors driving the HIV epidemic.
“Every 26 seconds, a woman is raped, every six hours
a woman is murdered by her partner,” says former TAC
women’s rights co-ordinator Nomfundo Eland “and
black lesbians are targeted for so-called ‘educational’ or
‘corrective’ rape.”
As Bulelani Mvotho explains “Our members are mainly
young women who face domestic abuse and violence
compounded by HIV and so find their cause at TAC.”
Lindiwe Mbatha tells her story “In the past I was abused
but now I am a person who can stand up for my rights.
Even my husband knows that. He used to shout at me
in front of the children but now we can sit together and
discuss matters. In TAC I learned, for the first time in my
life, that we are not nothing, we have rights on this earth.
I have learned to make my own decisions and now I can
teach other women.”
94
Defending our RIGhts
95
Image courtesy of CMT
The murder of Lorna Mlofana
Vuyiseka Dubula remembers Lorna as a “shy person who
Lorna’s tragic death compelled us to ensure that justice
always smiled”. She may have seemed shy at first but the
was served for both Lorna and “for people like us – poor
young 21-year-old mother was an activist who was vocal
people living with HIV and AIDS,” says Phumeza Runeyi,
about her HIV-positive status. She worked in Khayelitsha
a fellow activist of Lorna’s. Members of TAC marched to
as a TAC health educator. When her CD4 count dropped
the shebeen and to the police station.
to one and she had to start using antiretrovirals, Lorna
used her own experience not only to motivate but also to
Lorna Mlofana
dispel beliefs that others had about the “toxic” drugs.
In December 2003, after a tough year of campaigning
for access to treatment and training advocates and
Mandla Majola recognised that “TAC would have to push
and stretch the justice system. If we had not put pressure
on the police, nothing would have been done.”
“We went door to door and to schools, churches and
counsellors in Langa and Hout Bay clinics, TAC’s staff
clinics, to educate people about health services and
planned a beach party just in time to celebrate TAC’s
access to justice for rape survivors. We advertised court
upcoming fourth anniversary. Although the party was
dates and mobilised supporters inside and outside court
postponed due to bad weather, Lorna and her friends
for all the hearings,” says Vathiswa KamKam.
didn’t want to miss out on the occasion so they stopped
Meanwhile, other members liaised with the legal team
at a shebeen in Town Two in Khayelitsha. When Lorna
went to the toilet, a man followed her and had sex with
her, possibly raping her. After discovering her HIV status,
the man beat her to death. His friends joined in on the
assault, believing that Lorna was deliberately spreading
AIDS in the township. Lorna died before reaching hospital.
from the Women’s Legal Centre, AIDS Law Project and
Legal Resources Centre. “Supporters of the accused
tried to intimidate us but we put pressure on the police
investigators and prosecutor to do their jobs,” explains
Phumeza.
Justice for Lorna?
In December 2005, after TAC members attended every
“Justice was served for our two comrades who were raped
one of the over 20 court hearings, the court found two
and murdered but it has failed me as a rape survivor and
people guilty. The first accused was found guilty of
rape is becoming more common in the community,” says
murdering and raping Lorna. The second accused was
Fumana Ntlonto.
found guilty of attempted murder.
96
But unbeknown to TAC at the time, the first accused
In 2005, Nandipha Makeke, an 18-year-old TAC member,
in the Lorna case appealed – his rape conviction was
was raped and murdered in Khayelitsha. TAC again
overturned and his murder conviction changed to
mobilised, attending court hearings and demonstrating
aggravated assault. He was recently released from prison
for justice to be done. Her two killers were also eventually
after serving only a few years. So was there justice in the
found guilty.
Lorna Mlofana case?
Defending our RIGhts
97
Photo: Devon Manz
Comrade Linda Mafu at
work for TAC
Breaking the silence
Linda Mafu was TAC’s national organiser. She is now
I found an emotional home in the freedom struggle. I
Africa Co-ordinator of the World AIDS Campaign. This is
became an outspoken young woman leading the gender
her story.
desk but women’s rights were not a priority at that time
“When I was eight a man in my home started to touch
and rape was not addressed. Twice I was almost raped
me in a sexual way. My parents didn’t believe me as he
by trusted comrades but I had strong support from some
was a trusted family member, 24 years old, with access
women and men. It took four years of counselling to learn
to beautiful women, so why would he touch me? This
to cope with what had happened in my life. We need
gave the perpetrator licence to rape me and when I dared
space for the silent voices to come out and find a home
to say ‘No’, he beat me. I tried to escape my reality by
in TAC.
reading books. Then in Grade 9 I tried to take my life.
We need space for women to talk about painful
When I woke up in hospital, I cried tears of anger. The
experiences without being judged and stigmatised. We
social workers sent me home. My teachers said ‘Finish
must fight for access to justice: from police, social workers
your education and then you can leave home.’ People in
and doctors who don’t want to sign the police form
the community didn’t want to ‘interfere’. At 17 I again
because they don’t want to go to court. We must change
tried to take my life and again the system failed me.
the courts and fight for ongoing psychosocial support for
survivors.”
98
Defending our RIGhts
99
100
Defending our RIGhts
Changing attitudes to women
To respond to the criminal justice system’s failure to
address violence against women, TAC has committed to
a campaign of access to justice for survivors of gender
violence. In 2005, in partnership with Engender Health
and their programme, Men as Partners, TAC’s National
Congress mandated every branch to start separate forums
for women and men to talk about their own experiences
and challenges around gender-based violence at home, in
the workplace and in the community.
Learning about gender-based violence and its link with
HIV is part of TAC’s treatment literacy curriculum. TAC is
also campaigning for one-stop centres for rape survivors,
specialised training for the police, visible policing and
street lighting.
“This campaign can be won,
like many others in the
past, through awareness
education and broad-based
community organising.”
Nomfundo Eland
“In my village the women
are downcast, they agree
with everything the men say
or do. If they say no they are
beaten to hell, chased away
or even killed. We need to
empower women.”
Hellen Nkuna
101
“Human rights are for all people, no
matter what their sexual orientation”
Thandi Maluka, co-ordinator of Mpumalanga’s Gert
“That day I became a feminist! I phoned Nono Eland,
Sibande district, recalled the start of TAC’s first LGBTI
head of TAC’s women’s sector, to strategise. I called
sector for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex
Cutting Edge, a local television programme, who did
people.
an exposé of the police station. TAC went door to door
“Human rights are for all people, no matter what their
sexual orientation. But gay men are often targeted as ‘unAfrican’ and many lesbian women have been victims of
so-called ‘corrective’ or ‘educational’ rape, or murder. In
2007, TAC member Shirley Phangisa, a young lesbian
woman, was raped by two young men who broke into her
awareness about rape and human rights. People were
open-minded, wanting information. Closet lesbians told
their stories and some joined us. One gogo called her
granddaughter: ‘Get out of this pretending – here are
friends for you.’
house at midnight to ‘change’ her. Later Shirley told me
“We marched to the police station with our memo
‘It’s no use going to the police – they don’t take lesbian
demanding access to justice for lesbians and better
cases seriously,’ but we went together.
treatment for all rape survivors. The young men were
Us: We’ve come to make a case. We want to speak
to a policewoman in private.
Police office: Why?
Shirley: I’ve been raped by two men.
Police officer: You look like a boy – why would they
want to rape you?
arrested and appeared in court three times. TAC members
were there to support Shirley. The case was dismissed
for ‘lack of evidence’ but we campaigned until the DNA
evidence was ‘found’ and the case was reopened in
2010.
“TAC is a home for all! Suspicion, fear and stigma are still
there but many lesbians are out of the closet and there are
Me: She’s a woman and rape is a serious crime – do
brave role models. We work closely with People Opposed
your job.
to Women Abuse, Forum for the Empowerment of Women
Officer: Just sign this statement, boy.
and OUT to end discrimination and hate crimes. We need
Me: This is not what she told you. I demand to see
to fight until we get the Constitution for everyone!”
your station commander…
102
for three days visiting huts, shacks, houses, to raise
Defending our RIGhts
Photo: Jodie Bieber for Aciton Aid
Phumela Masuka and
Atarcia Maila are an
openly gay couple
who live together in
Soweto. Phumela
is a corrective rape
survivor.
103
Xenophobic violence
In May 2008, violence of another kind hit the headlines.
consult if they were on treatment for HIV or TB and we
In communities across South Africa, people from other
accompanied them to the clinics.”
African countries were chased from their homes and
Faniswa Filani tells of a first-hand incident “Suddenly
businesses. At least 50 people were murdered. Many
all the South Africans on the bus were shouting at two
were injured in mob attacks, and there were reports of
Zimbabwean men ‘Kwirikwiri, get out!’ I shouted ‘Don’t
rape. In the Western Cape, TAC formed a civil society
insult our brothers – they helped us in the struggle’ and
task team to co-ordinate a humanitarian and political
everyone turned on me ‘Are you working for foreigners?’
response, including litigation, and provide a forum for
‘Are you married to one?’ The Zimbabweans jumped off
leaders of the displaced people. The Cape Town offices
the bus and the others wanted to beat me but I argued
of TAC, the AIDS Law Project, Sonke Gender Justice and
in Xhosa, showing my t-shirt from the anti-xenophobia
the AIDS Rights Alliance became a disaster relief centre.
march. In the end they said ‘We’ll leave you this time’ and
TAC’s office in Khayelitsha became a distribution point for
we all went to work.”
emergency relief.
Regis Mtutu, TAC’s former international co-ordinator,
Tantaswa Ndlelana explains “When attacks and looting
tells why the organisation had to become involved in
happened in KTC (Nyanga, Cape Town), immigrants fled
something beyond our usual mandate “TAC cannot
to the hall. TAC served on the anti-xenophobia committee
keep quiet when our ‘foreign’ brothers and sisters suffer
in Nyanga. Some of us went to help and keep watch,
xenophobia – we try to educate our communities about
others to have their hair done to support the immigrants’
the Constitution which guarantees everyone the right to
business. We wore our t-shirts so they knew who to
life and dignity, including access to health services.”
Photo: Samantha Reinders
104
Photo: Samantha Reinders
Defending our RIGhts
“TAC is for all the people
– just forget about
xenophobia.”
Norute Nobola
105
106
making
headlines
107
Photo: Eric Miller courtesy Bread for the World
108
making headlines
Getting it right with the media
Veteran journalist Pat Sidley wrote this about TAC “For
many journalists of my vintage, the activists were manna
from heaven; they even invoked some nostalgia for
the anti-apartheid struggle of old. They were always
available, returned phone calls (most of them) and
provided mountains of useful, interesting information.
They were dealing with a series of complex medical and
legal questions, and were always available to teach and
explain. Pharmaceutical companies, evasive and secretive
at the best of times, retreated further into their shells.”
From the outset, TAC valued its relationship with
journalists and worked hard to improve HIV reporting.
We trained community journalists. We also published
a magazine, Equal Treatment, which has now had over
“I joined TAC in 2004, and
ever since 2006 I have been
a passionate journalist,
submitting photographs and
articles to Equal Treatment
and comments on websites.
I love working with a
camera and video. I am so
passionate about writing for
a good cause.”
Adam Malapa
30 issues. TAC has also had a close relationship with
Community Media Trust, who have made eight series of
the fantastic HIV magazine programme, Siyayinqoba Beat
It!
TAC’s strategy is successful because we have invested our
efforts in four pillars: understanding and using the law,
doing high-quality accurate research, mobilising people in
communities, and dealing effectively with the media. For
any activist organisation or social movement, it is essential
to be reasonable and to come across as reasonable to the
general public. TAC has got this right. Many other activist
movements have struggled with this.
109
How TAC journalists uncovered
deaths in Delmas
In 2005, TAC trained about 30 of its leading members
staff members at Delmas Hospital, claims by the Delmas
to become community journalists. The aim was that
community and my own investigations.
they would write important community stories about
health. We also hoped that some of them would become
sufficiently well trained to become full-time journalists.
Carohn Cornell did intensive writing training with the
trainees. Shepi Mati taught them how to conduct
reported to me that the diarrhoea outbreak started in June
and that the number of deaths has been greater than
reported…
interviews. Community Media Trust taught them how to
“I spent Friday afternoon locating families of people who
use video and take photographs.
contracted diarrhoea and died. I located six in just a short
Sydney Masinga was one of the trainee journalists. After
the course, there were reports of a diarrhoea outbreak in
Delmas, Mpumalanga. Sydney and TAC Mpumalanga
space of time. I personally saw three death certificates
stating typhoid as the cause of death and this was still
when the official death toll was two…
members went to investigate. They discovered that the
“I also spoke to community members who said that
province was under-reporting, possibly intentionally, the
Delmas usually has about ten funerals a week, but last
deaths caused by the outbreak. We broke the story and it
week Saturday there were 21. On Saturday I spoke
made headlines.
to a local clergyman, Pastor Budha, who as part of
“The Mpumalanga health department claimed on Friday
that there have been three typhoid deaths in Delmas and
483 cases of typhoid. Symptoms of the disease are also
being reported to have been first noticed in August.
“The number of deaths caused by the outbreak of typhoid
and diarrhoea is contradicted by reports I have received by
110
“Two staff members at Delmas Hospital have separately
his job presides over funerals. He has witnessed an
increasing number of these and has complained to the
local newspaper that government is underestimating the
number of deaths.”
Today Sydney is a full-time journalist.
making headlines
TAC members at
community journalist
training
111
Photo: Locker 14
112
making headlines
Presenters from Beat It!
Beat it!
Siyayinqoba Beat It! is South Africa’s only HIV magazine
television programme. It is produced by TAC’s ally,
Community Media Trust. It is now in its eighth series. TAC
leaders like Busisiwe Maqungo, Lihle Dlamini and the late
Vuyani Jacobs have been key contributors on the show.
Hundreds of TAC members have been interviewed and
have appeared on it.
It has provided reliable, scientifically based information
to people with HIV and their families, friends and caregivers.
One million people watch the show weekly and now there
are 26 episodes per season. It has been a critical way
for TAC to convey its messages to working-class people
across the country.
Despite its high-quality and important content, nearly
every season Community Media Trust has had to fight
with the SABC or, before 2004, with ETV to have the
series shown.
113
“We read it from cover to cover”
TAC’s magazine, Equal Treatment
“With Equal Treatment you get informed about the latest
magazine. TAC’s prevention and treatment literacy
education. We use it as an educational tool, both inside
practitioners often refer to issues of ET when they do talks
TAC and with other organisations. We read it from cover to
on HIV at public health facilities. ET is now translated into
cover,” says TAC’s Western Cape treasurer, Yozi Lungelo.
different local languages. Members were so excited when
In February 2001, Darryl Cotton worked with Jack Lewis,
Zackie Achmat and Nathan Geffen to publish the first
rural areas.”
issue of Equal Treatment, or ET as it is affectionately
TAC’s electronic newsletter was pioneering. Very few
known. From a 4-page newspaper, Equal Treatment has
activist organisations had a free subscription newsletter
blossomed into a 32-page glossy distributed throughout
list in 2000, when TAC’s newsletter began. Today, no
the country, including at book stores and by mail. Later
activist or political group can do well without one.
it was edited by Thembinkosi Mtonjeni and Bongiwe
Mkhutyukelwa, then by Nathan Geffen, Nokhwezi Hoboyi
and Jo Gorton. The current editor is Marcus Low.
Former ET editor and current Ekhurhuleni District coordinator Hoboyi explains “Equal Treatment simplifies
scientific jargon into language that is understandable
to local communities. TAC members and community
members look forward to receiving new issues of the
114
this started as the magazine can now be understood in
TAC’s website has been a valuable research tool. Although
it has never managed to be pretty, it has contained a
wealth of information and gets about 10,000 visitors a
month.
In recent years, TAC has begun producing district
newsletters. These have grown in quality and become
very popular.
making headlines
Photo: Sofia Tosolari
115
Photo: Samantha Reinders
116
making headlines
The Generics
In 2003 TAC’s choir, the Generics, produced an album
called Jikelele. This is the lead song from the album.
Jikelele Jikelele Jikelele
(All over, all over, all over)
Nevirapine siyayazi ikhusela
abantwana kwiHIV
(We know nevirapine prevents babies
from getting HIV)
Jikelele
(All over)
MTCT (mother-to-child transmission)
MTCT MTCT MTCT MTCT MTCT
117
Sources
Dozens of TAC members were interviewed for this book by
Community Media Trust Archive:
Carohn Cornell.
www.beatit.co.za/archive/index
Steven Friedman and Sharon Mottiar, Eduard Grebe,
TAC’s website: www.tac.org.za
Steven Robins and Rebecca Hodes shared transcripts of
interviews done in the course of their research, 2002–08.
Equal Treatment, TAC’s magazine:
www.tac.org.za/community/equaltreatment
TAC’s photo archive stored at Designs 4 Development
SECTION27 website (formerly AIDS Law
Project): www.section27.org.za
Further reading
Books
Abdool Karim Q, Abdool Karim SS. 2010. HIV/AIDS in
South Africa, 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press
AIDS Law Project. 2003. The Price of Life: Hazel Tau and
Others vs GlaxoSmithKline and Boehringer Ingelheim.
A Report on the Excessive Pricing Complaint to South
Africa’s Competition Commission. Johannesburg
Cameron E. 2005. Witness to AIDS. London: I.B. Taurus
& Co
Cullinan K, Thom A. 2009. The Virus, Vitamins and
and the Struggle for Antiretrovirals in South Africa.
Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press
Openheimer GM, Bayer R. 2007. Shattered Dream? An
Oral History of the South African AIDS Epidemic. New
York: Oxford University Press
Steinberg J. 2008. Three-Letter Plague. Johannesburg:
Jonathan Ball Publishers
Articles
Achmat A. 2004. Edited Transcript of Zackie Achmat’s
Vegetables: The South African HIV/AIDS Mystery.
Speech at the Opening of the People’s Health
Johannesburg: Jacana Media
Summit. http://www.tac.org.za/Documents/PHS/
Geffen N. 2010. Debunking Delusions: The Inside Story
of the Treatment Action Campaign. Johannesburg:
Jacana Media
Govender P. 2007. Love and Courage: A Story of
Insubordination. Johannesburg: Jacana Media
118
Nattrass N. 2007. Mortal Combat: AIDS Denialism
ZackieAchmatOpeningAddressPHS.txt
Achmat A. 2005. Founding Affidavit in TAC Intervention
as Amicus in Minister of Health and Other versus New
Clicks and Others
Achmat A. 2005. Founding Affidavit in TAC versus Rath
Chapter 1 in Democratizing Development: The Politics
Defamation Interdict Case.
of Socio-economic Rights in South Africa, University
http://www.tac.org.za/Documents/Court_Cases/Rath/
of Oslo
Defamation/TAC-Achmat-1.pdf
Achmat A, Roberts R. 2005. Steering the Storm: TB and
Heywood M. 2009. South Africa’s Treatment Action
Campaign: Combining Law and Social Mobilization to
HIV in South Africa: A Policy Paper of the Treatment
Realize the Right to Health. Journal of Human Rights
Action Campaign. http://www.tac.org.za/Documents/
Practice 1(1): 14–36
TBPaperForConference-1.pdf
Friedman S, Mottiar S. 2004. A Rewarding Engagement?
Heywood M. 2010. Justice and the Treatment Action
Campaign. In Zuma’s Own Goal, Losing SA’s War
The Treatment Action Campaign and the Politics of
on Poverty (eds) Maharaj B, Desai A, Bond P. Africa
HIV/AIDS. Centre for Civil Society and the School of
World Press
Development Studies research report, Durban
Geffen N. 2001. Cost and Cost-effectiveness of Mother-toChild Transmission Prevention of HIV. TAC Briefing Paper.
www.tac.org.za/Documents/MTCTPrevention/mtctcost.rtf
Geffen N, Nattrass N, Raubenheimer C. 2003. The Cost
Heywood M. 2010. Civil Society and Uncivil Government,
The Treatment Action Campaign versus Thabo Mbeki,
1998–2008. In Mbeki and After (ed.) Daryl Glaser.
Johannesburg: Wits University Press
Nattrass N. 2008. AIDS and the Scientific Governance
of HIV Prevention and Treatment Interventions in
of Medicine in Post-apartheid South Africa. African
South Africa. CSSR Working Paper No. 28
Affairs 107(427): 157–176
Heywood M. 2002. Debunking ‘Conglomo-talk’: A
Nattrass N, Geffen N. 2003. Providing Antiretroviral
Case Study of the Amicus Curiae as an Instrument
Treatment for All who Need it in South Africa. CSSR
for Advocacy, Investigation and Mobilisation. Law,
Working Paper No. 42
Democracy and Development: AIDS Law Project
Heywood M. 2003. Preventing Mother to Child HIV
Transmission in South Africa: Background, Strategies
and Outcomes of the TAC Case against the Minister of
Peacock D, Budaza T, Greig A. 2006. ’Justice for Lorna
Mlofana’: The Treatment Action Campaign’s AIDS and
Gender Activism. Centre for Conflict Resolution
Robins S, Colvin C. 2009. AIDS Activism in South Africa:
Health. South African Journal of Human Rights 19(2)
From Social Movements to Support Groups. In HIV/
Heywood M. 2004. Price of Denial. Development Update
AIDS in South Africa 25 Years On: A Psychological
5(3). Interfund
Heywood M. 2005. The Achilles Heel: The Impact of HIV/
AIDS on Democracy in South Africa. In HIV/AIDS in
Perspective (eds) Rohleder P, Swartz L, Kalichman S.
New York: Springer
Skordis J, Nattrass N. 2002. Paying to Waste Lives: The
South Africa (eds) Karim Q, Karim SS. Cambridge
Affordability of Reducing Mother-to-Child Transmission
University Press
of HIV in South Africa. Journal of Health and
Heywood M. 2005. Shaping, Making and Breaking the
Economics. September, 21(5): 927
Law in TAC’s Campaign for a National Treatment Plan.
119
TAC donors
TAC is very grateful fot the support that we receive and we would like to thank all organisations and individuals for their
contributions. See below a list of institutional donors who have contributed to TAC.
120
Action Aid International
Idols Gives Back Foundation
AIDS Consortium
Interfund
AIDS Foundation of South Africa
International AIDS Vaccine Initiative
AIDS Law Project
John M Lloyd Foundation
American Centre for International Labour Solidarity
Kaiser Foundation
American Jewish World Service
Levi Strauss Foundation
Anglo American Corporation
Médecins Sans Frontières
Artists for a New South Africa
Multi Agency Grants Initiative
Atlantic Philanthropies
Nadine Gordimer
Australian High Commission
National Association of People Living with AIDS
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Norwegian Church Aid
Bread for the World
Open Society Institute
Canada Fund
Open Society Foundation for South Africa
Centre for Economic Governance and AIDS in Africa
OXFAM Great Britain
Comic Relief – FOTAC
OXFAM Australia
Comic Relief – SING
Public Welfare Foundation
Community Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
Department for International Development UK
Royal Netherlands Embassy
Embassy of Belgium
Secours Populaire Francais
Engender Health
Sigried Rausing Trust
European Union Foundation for Human Rights
South African Development Fund
European Coalition of Positive People
- Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations
European Union
- Broadway Cares
Fogarty Foundation
- The ARCA Foundation
Ford Foundation
- Tides Working Assets
Free SA
- Treatment Action Group
Gesso Foundation
South African AIDS Training Programme
Global AIDS Alliance
Stephen Lewis Foundation
Global Fund
Swedish International Development Agency
HIVOS [explain]
UNAIDS
Photo: Samantha Reinders
121
“TAC members – mostly women, young, black and poor – took on South Africa’s
former president and his administration, the local and international pharmaceutical
industry, and the US government, and they won. How did they do it? That’s what
a TAC history needs to explore.” Pregs Govender, South African Human Rights
Commission
“TAC is an outstanding non-governmental organisation, created by the South African
people, for the South African people, in solidarity with people all over the world
affected by HIV and AIDS. Tragically, South Africa has lost countless men, women
and children who were denied the fundamental right to health care. It is an honour
to be associated with TAC in the continuing struggle. Viva TAC. Viva!” Annie Lennox,
musician and recording artist
“Why has TAC’s work been important? The struggle for treatment is crucial in and
of itself. However, as a social movement TAC has also demonstrated the importance
of holding power to account to meet the needs of the electorate.” Andrew Feinstein,
Friends of TAC United Kingdom
“TAC was responsible for educating me about the realities of HIV/AIDS. I arrived as
British High Commissioner in South Africa just before the Durban Conference in
2000. TAC was vocal and effective there, and elsewhere, especially in lobbying the
drugs companies and government.
“But what really got me involved directly was observing TAC volunteers at their
workshops. So many organisations speak on behalf of other people ‘less fortunate
than themselves’. TAC was made up of those most affected – mostly women, young,
impressive, well organised, challenging and extremely well informed. I was and
remain inspired.” Ann Grant, former British High Commissioner to South Africa
122