Wisani wa ka Ngobeni
The fight between Aids activists and the Mpumalanga government took an about-turn this week when MEC for Health Sibongile Manana backed down on her decision to evict an NGO that helps rape survivors in the province.
Manana withdrew her Pretoria High Court application against the Greater Nelspruit Rape Intervention Project (Grip), which she had accused of supplying medicines to and endangering the lives of poor black people.
It is not clear why the MEC made the decision. Initially Manana sought to evict Grip from rooms in the Rob Ferreira and Themba state hospitals, where the organisation provides care to women and children who have been raped. Grip’s services include helping survivors gain access to anti-retroviral drugs.
In her founding affidavit, Manana had asked for a punitive cost order against Grip for failing to vacate the rooms, which she said were needed by the Department of Health.
But this week she filed a notice of withdrawal from the case, due to be heard on April 9, and agreed to pay Grip’s legal costs. No reason was given for the decision. Grip had been given permission by the hospitals’ superintendents to use the rooms. The Rob Ferreira superintendent, Dr Thys von Mollendorff, has since been dismissed.
Last week Grip was banned by the Mpumalanga Department of Safety and Security from operating a counselling unit at a police station.