Aids lobby group, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), said on Monday it has lodged a complaint with the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) against Mpumalanga Health MEC Sibongile Manana.
In documents supporting its complaint, the TAC accused Manana of defying a Constitutional Court ruling on the provision of antiretroviral drugs to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV/Aids.
The TAC said it had conducted an investigation that revealed Manana had failed to provide Aids drugs despite the readiness of superintendents and medical doctors in the province to do so.
”We have placed before the HRC correspondence and press statements, which, we believe, demonstrate conclusively that the MEC has lied, as well as misrepresented the situation and contradicted herself,” the TAC said in a statement.
”This points to the need for an urgent investigation of what is actually happening on the ground.”
In July this year, the Constitutional Court ruled that the government should provide the Aids drug nevirapine to HIV-positive pregnant women at all public hospitals.
The TAC said Manana seemed reluctant to abide by the court order. If she continued to do so, thousands of HIV-positive babies would be born in Mpumalanga, the TAC said.
”TAC is still considering the possibility of legal proceedings against the MEC for acting in contempt of a court order,” it said.
Along with Manana, the Mpumalanga health department and the Mpumalanga provincial government, National Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang is also named in the TAC’s submission to the SAHRC. – Sapa