Unruly and disruptive behaviour caused the adjournment of a regular monthly general meeting of members of the Aids Consortium at Cosatu House in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, on Tuesday.
Consortium spokesperson Sharon Ekambaram, who is an advocacy officer for its social transformation programme, said in a statement that a group of members of the National Association of People Living with HIV/Aids (Napwa), led by its director, Nkululeko Nxesi, ”were clearly at the meeting to cause disruption”.
Treatment Action Campaign treasurer Mark Heywood also condemned the incident, saying racism was being fomented and encouraged by Napwa’s leadership. Heywood also said he was physically threatened with violence, verbally abused and accused of being a white racist by Napwa spokesperson Thanduxolo Doro.
Ekambaram said the meeting was called to discuss the conclusions of the special audit investigation conducted on the Aids Consortium and its role in the implementation of the national treatment plan.
She said the report of the executive committee clearly detailed the status of the Aids Consortium on finances, management and the business of the NGO.
”The report clearly shows that the Aids Consortium is now in a stable financial position. This report includes recommendations from, and conclusion of the recent audit investigation of the Aids Consortium.”
Earlier in March, a hornet’s nest of bickering and infighting was exposed among the more than 1 200 bodies that make up the umbrella organisation.
Accusations ranging from mismanagement of funds to racism had been bandied about, much of it aimed at the activities of the executive committee.
Ekambaram also questioned the motives of the disruption: ”In its 12-year history, the Aids Consortium had never experienced such obvious disruption…”
She said the Aids Consortium condemned the ”disgraceful behaviour displayed by the group and directly brings into question the intention of Napwa. We can only surmise that they wanted to prevent the Aids Consortium from releasing its audit findings and continuing with the process of transparency.”
Heywood said the very first comment by a Napwa member during the meeting included a racist attack on a white member of the Aids Consortium executive, Chloe Hardy, who was told that ”we are sick of white people sitting at the front of the meeting; it causes us pain”, to applause from the Napwa leaders.
Ekambaram said: ”In the light of all this the Aids Consortium strongly believes that there must be a code of conduct covering governance, financial accountability and member rights agreed to by all publicly funded HIV/Aids NGOs and that government and donors should insist on maximum transparency and compliance with the code.”
She also called on Napwa to discipline its members who ”have specifically proved that they are not truthful and worthy to be considered as leaders of a respectable organisation”.
She said the consortium would reconvene another general members’ meeting soon.
Napwa spokesperson Nkululeko Nxesi was unavailable for comment on Tuesday night. — Sapa