TAC warns Mbeki, Manto

2006-03-03 13:36

Cape Town - The hidden hand of the government was apparent in the work of vitamin salesman Dr Matthias Rath, the Treatment Action Campaign's Zackie Achmat claimed on Friday.

"There is no question in our mind... there has been support for Rath and... his actions against the TAC,... from the health minister, but also from other officials within government," Achmat said on the steps of the Cape High Court.

He was speaking after a full Bench of the court ordered Rath not to publish defamatory statements accusing the TAC of acting as a front for multinational pharmaceutical companies.

"The most important thing is that the court has ordered that. It said that Rath, the (Traditional Healers' Organisation) and any person - and I include here Thabo Mbeki - have no right to say that TAC is a front for the pharmaceutical companies or the pharmaceutical industry or the Trojan horse of that industry or the running dog of that industry," Achmat said.

"They have no right to say that we receive funds from pharmaceutical companies in return for promoting antiretroviral drugs. They have no right to say we target poor communities as a market for the drug industry." Achmat said behind Rath and his allegations stood Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, and behind her President Mbeki.

"And we are saying to them, take note - TAC is coming," he said.

Achmat also referred to continuing litigation against Rath and his alleged "unethical and unlawful" experimentation on poor communities.

HIV/Aids

Rath and the Dr Rath Foundation contend that antiretrovirals are toxic and harmful, and it would be better to use natural and traditional medicine to combat HIV/Aids.

"We are saying he should be arrested under the Medicines Act," Achmat told supporters and the media after Friday's court order.

In a written judgment, in which all three judges concurred, Judge Siraj Desai said the matter required balancing the freedom of expression with other competing constitutionally-guaranteed interests.

"The limited restraint on free speech, resulting from the order I make, is not directed to stop the respondents (Rath) from participating in a debate of immense public importance," he wrote.

"The restraint is directed at the manner in which the respondents have chosen to participate in the debate and the methods they chose to employ," Desai continued.

The TAC application related to the "boisterous" and, at times, "unseemly" debate on the efficacy of antiretroviral treatment for those suffering from HIV/Aids.

"In the light of the scale of the pandemic and its frighteningly severe consequences, this discord is unsettling," Desai found.

Neither Rath nor any of his foundation's officials were in court for the judgment.

Attorney Likhaya Makana, the legal representative of the third respondent, the Traditional Healers' Organisation, was present.

- SAPA