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TAC takes aim at Mbeki
17/04/2003 11:55 - (SA)
Cape Town - Treatment Action Campaign activists targeted President Thabo Mbeki on Thursday for the first time in their bid to pressure the government into providing antiretrovirals to people with HIV/Aids.
A handful of TAC members picketed outside a new R26m magistrate's court complex at Khayelitsha in Cape Town, which Mbeki was due to open on Thursday morning.
TAC activists want the government to commit to a nationwide public-sector antiretroviral programme, but spokesperson Mandla Majola said the TAC was not in Khayelitsha to disrupt the opening of the court.
He said the protest formed part of the TAC's civil disobedience campaign.
Police kept a high profile and held plastic shields as they guarded the driveway to the complex, the first fully-fledged court in a black area in the Western Cape.
Scores of pupils from the Masiphumelele High School also lined Bonga Drive opposite the court holding up placards some of which proclaimed: "We need books, Mr President", and "We can't afford Model C schools".
Civil disobedience campaign
The school has apparently not received any books from the education department this year.
VIPs at the opening were to include Justice Minister Penuell Maduna, Public Works Minister Stella Sigcau, Western Cape Premier Marthinus van Schalkwyk, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula, and members of the judiciary.
The TAC embarked on its civil disobedience campaign last month.
On March 20, about 100 members were arrested after they occupied a Cape Town police station and demanded that Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang be charged with culpable homicide in connection with Aids deaths.
Five days later, TAC members disrupted a speech by Tshabalala-Msimang in a heated confrontation at a public health conference in Cape Town.
Since then, the minister has claimed TAC's black members are under the sway of whites who instruct them what to do, while the TAC claims she carries moral responsibility for the 600 Aids deaths a day in South Africa.
Tshabalala-Msimang's department says it is waiting for the result of an antiretroviral costing study by a joint health and treasury task team before committing itself.
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