The new chairperson of the South African Human Rights Commission (HRC), Shirley Mabusela, kept her head down on the government’s HIV/Aids stance this week and stood by the HRC’s decision to stay out of next week’s court challenge to official policy on anti-retroviral drugs, writes Bongani Majola.
This is likely to disappoint Aids activists, who may have hoped for a bolder stance from the HRC under Mabusela, a social worker with a keen interest in children. The Treatment Action Campaign’s (TAC)case will begin in the Pretoria High Court on Monday.
Mabusela, who replaces Barney Pityana as HRC head, said the commission had no qualms about anybody taking the government to court.
“Speaking personally, as someone who holds children’s rights dearly, I think the provision of nevirapine or any drugs that are effective and helpful should be supported. If the drugs help they should be provided.”
However, she added that the commission had “not sat down and come up with a position on the government policy on Aids or mother-to-child transmission”. The HRC had drafted a policy on mother-to-child transmission in 1997, but “we have not said ‘this is our stance on the government’s policy’ as yet”.
The commission would be following the case with interest, as “the courts should provide us with principles to deal with such cases”.
Asked whether the HRC had been pressured by the government to withdraw from the case, Mabusela said that was “neither here nor there”.
“I am not aware of any pressure from anywhere. The decision to withdraw was based on the fact that we had nothing new or additional to contribute to the TAC case.”
Mabusela said the HRC was a statutory body “completely independent from the government. In fact, the government has never interfered in the work and programmes of the commission. But we have worked with the government collaboratively on the racism conference, for example.”
The head of the HRC’s legal department, Mogam Moodliar, said the commission was initially involved in the case only as a “friend of the court”. On mother-to-child transmission, Moodliar said: “We uphold the Constitution, which says that every person has the right to reproductive health care.”
However, he expressed discomfort at answering “questions about policy”, as he only dealt with “specific cases”. He said the public should be informed of the availability of anti-retroviral drugs.
Mabusela said the HRC continued to investigate an increasing number of complaints by people who claimed to have suffered discrimination because of their HIV status. The HRC had received a complaint from a woman who felt that she had a right to anti-retrovirals, and “we communicated this complaint to the health minister, asking her to ensure that as the government they do something about it”.