The Aids community believes the government has been given the political space to launch a national Aids treatment plan without being seen to be buckling under pressure, the Mail & Guardian understands.
This comes after the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) suspended its civil disobedience programme.
A task team of health and Treasury officials was due to release a report by April 30 on the cost of a national treatment plan. The report has been delayed, but insiders say it favours the treatment programme.
The government has been embarrassed by the TAC’s campaign, which has received wide coverage overseas. Attempts to showcase the state’s progress on Aids treatment were overshadowed by this coverage at a time when TAC leader Zackie Achmat also received a citation from Time magazine.
By getting the TAC to suspend its campaign the government can now announce a national treatment plan as part of its own programme, rather than as a response to a civil campaign.
Church and union leaders this week welcomed the suspension, but said the TAC’s goodwill should be matched by government action.
“The issue of anti-retroviral medicines [should not] become the subject of power politics,” said Zwelinzima Vavi, Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary.
Activists expressed guarded optimism this week because a powerful dissident faction in and outside the government had ruined previous efforts to build a unified front on HIV/Aids.
The dÃ