Former President Nelson Mandela on Friday reiterated his stance that antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) should be made available in the public sector.
He did this in a statement issued to express his condolences to the family and specifically the four children of singer Anneline Malebo, who died in Cape Town on Wednesday night.
Malebo (48) was lead singer of the group Joy, famous for its 1970s hit song ”Paradise Road”. She contracted HIV two years ago.
Malebo only started taking ARVs three weeks ago after refusing to do so because she believed that money for the medication should be left for her children, the Cape Argus reported.
Mandela on Friday said: ”We… learnt with great sadness that Anneline’s economic position made her unable to take antiretrovirals earlier.
”This again emphasises the need for us to make treatment available in the public sector and in places accessible to those who cannot afford otherwise.”
At the International Aids Conference in Barcelona, Spain, last month, Mandela said ARV treatment should be extended to the HIV-infected parents of children. ”Many children are orphans today because their parents were not able to get access to treatment for Aids.
”Is it acceptable that these dying parents have no access to treatment? The simple answer is no. We must find the means to take life-saving treatment to all who need it, regardless of whether they can pay for it, or where they live or whatever reason.”
A visit last month to Treatment Action Campaign leader Zackie Achmat, who refuses to take ARVs until they are available to everyone, prompted Mandela to ask for a meeting with President Thabo Mbeki.
At the time, Mandela said he supported the government’s stance that research into ARVs in an African context was necessary to ensure that if there was a roll-out, the drugs would be safe.
”But of course what worries everybody is the number of people who are dying almost daily,” he added.
The government agreed in March to ”carefully examine” Mandela’s proposal that ARVs be made available in the public sector. At the time, Mandela said he would like to see ARVs dispensed while the government’s important research into their alleged toxicity was being conducted.
”A perception has been created that we do not care for dying babies, dying young people. I want us to remove this perception,” he said.
However, the African National Congress’s national executive committee subsequently rejected Mandela’s views that ARVs like nevirapine should be made available to all Aids sufferers who thought the drugs might do them some good.
Despite this, Mandela has expressed his unequivocal support for Mbeki for a second term in office and as president of the ANC at its national congress to be held in December.
But he has remained adamant that people with HIV/Aids should decide for themselves whether they want to take the drugs.
”Let us leave the responsibility to each individual who may be suffering from HIV/Aids and warn them that some of these drugs may be toxic,” he said in April.
By not providing drugs in state hospitals, the government was effectively prejudicing the poor as the rich could always go to their private doctors or clinics for the drugs, while the poor could only rely on public hospitals where the drugs could be provided free, Mandela said.
”I have expressed that opinion because I believe in it and I am prepared to defend it to the end of my days.”
In an earlier radio interview Mandela said that despite the ANC’s rejection of his views he would not retreat from his call for universal access to ARVs.
”That’s not a question from which I can retreat. When people are dying — babies, young people — I can never be quiet.”
On Friday he said he admired Malebo for her courage to make her HIV-positive status known.
”This must serve as an example to other people who live with HIV/Aids. It is only through making their status known that we shall be able to overcome the stigma of HIV/Aids.”
Arts and Culture Minister Ben Ngubane also described Malebo as ”special” for revealing her HIV/Aids status.
”This is an indication that she was committed to assisting government in fighting the disease.”
Ngubane said Malebo made an immense contribution in promoting music in South Africa and the international arena in the 1970s and 1980s.
”She became an icon of hope, encouraging and educating the younger generation to become seasoned musicians.”
Mandela said he remembered with great affection a song Malebo had dedicated to him.
”We mourn the untimely death of this great artistic talent in our society.” – Sapa