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TAC won't back govt Aids 'lies'
30/05/2006 17:06 - (SA)
Pretoria - The Treatment Action Campaign marched in Pretoria on Tuesday saying it could not support "lies" the government was telling the United Nations about its treatment programme.
TAC chairperson Zackie Achmat said: "We, as the TAC, cannot support the lies the government is telling the United Nations.
"The first lie is that we have the biggest (treatment) programme in the world.
"The truth is that we have the biggest need in the world and we are not meeting that need."
Earlier in the day, Achmat said they were marching on the Union Buildings in solidarity with the campaigners attending a UN conference on the disease on Wednesday.
The group of about 2 000 marchers also aimed to put pressure on all governments attending the meeting to adopt HIV/Aids treatment policies.
Achmat said truth, leadership and science were at the core of appropriately dealing with the pandemic.
Interactions haven't borne fruit
The group also handed a memorandum to two representatives of the presidency, outlining their demands for Aids treatment and the stance it required government to take on the issue.
The memorandum was given to the presidency because the TAC felt its interactions with Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang had proved fruitless so far.
Among other things, the memorandum called for an end to "state-endorsed" denials about the disease, and for President Thabo Mbeki and the health minister to commit to ending what it termed unscientific messages about the disease.
It also wanted the law to be enforced against those taking advantage of the vulnerability of people with HIV/Aids.
Social issues such as gender-based violence and the legacy of the migrant labour system in the mining industry, were also highlighted by the memorandum as requiring government's attention.
Achmat urged those governments that had not applied treatment policies by the next UN Aids conference in 2010, to be charged with "crimes against humanity".
The health department at first refused the TAC and the Aids Law Project a place in the official South African delegation to the conference.
The department later extended an invitation to the TAC, which the organisation turned down because other pressure groups were still barred from the delegation.
"Our delegation has already arrived in New York and our deputy chairperson Khensani Mavasa, from Limpopo, who is openly living with HIV, will be addressing the high-level meeting," said Achmat.
TAC sponsors funded trip
Although the group was travelling independently of the government they would still "have access to all the conference activities".
Achmat said the trip had been funded by TAC sponsors.
"We say to the government: We don't need your permission to speak truth to power! We have always spoken truth to power and will continue to do so!" Achmat told the crowd.
- SAPA
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