THE State had failed to put the interests of children first, the Constitutional Court heard on Monday. Counsel for Cotlands Baby Sanctuary, Susie Cowen, argued that it was completely unreasonable for the state to exclude certain people from its antiretroviral programmes.
The court is hearing the State’s appeal against a Pretoria High Court order that it extend its anti-retroviral programme beyond 18 pilot sites.
When the case was brought to court in August, the anti-retroviral nevirapine was not provided except at 18 pilot sites.
”The sheer weight of the gravity of harm (for the child born HIV-positive) renders unknown and unspecified long-term risks negligible,” Cowen argued.
The State has argued that nevirapine needs to be tested via the pilot sites because its long-term effects were not known.
Cowen argued that this explanation was ”not adequate”.
The Court is, after tea, to rule on whether KwaZulu-Natal Premier Lionel Mtshali is to be allowed to address the court on this appeal.
Mtshali’s counsel David Unterhalter will later address the court on another, technical appeal. – Sapa