/ 26 September 2007

TAC plans to block Qunta’s SABC appointment

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has threatened to take court action if lawyer Christine Qunta is reappointed to the board of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). TAC leader Zachie Achmat said Qunta's involvement in a company selling untested medicines purporting to cure HIV/Aids disqualified her from occupying public office.

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has threatened to take court action if controversial lawyer Christine Qunta is officially reappointed to the board of the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

Briefing the media in Cape Town on Wednesday, TAC leader Zachie Achmat said Qunta’s involvement in a company selling untested medicines purporting to cure HIV/Aids disqualified her from occupying any public office.

”There is prima facie evidence that … Qunta, a practising attorney, is an investor and director in a company that profiteers from selling untested and unregistered cures and treatments for Aids,” Achmat said.

”If President Thabo Mbeki goes on to officially appoint her, we will definitely take the matter to court,” he said.

Qunta, one of the directors of a company involved in the registration and patenting of traditional herbs currently being tested, is one of 12 candidates selected by the National Assembly’s communication committee to sit on the SABC board.

The controversial lawyer’s inclusion in the committee’s final list of candidates has drawn criticism, with opposition parties claiming African National Congress members of the committee had been put under pressure by Luthuli House to select her — a charge vehemently denied by the ruling party.

Her relationship with vitamin entrepreneur Matthias Rath, given that she is part of the presidential task team on traditional medicines, was cited by the TAC as another reason she should not be appointed.

Mbeki is still to officially appoint the candidates.

IOL reported recently that Qunta’s co-director, Uitenhage healer Freddie Isaacs, claimed the medicine could cure HIV/Aids.

”It does cure Aids,” Isaacs told the Star. – Sapa