An application by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) for an urgent interdict against vitamin entrepreneur Matthias Rath got under way in the Cape High Court on Friday morning.
However, proceedings were adjourned minutes after they started because the noise of demonstrators outside the building was interfering with the court’s sound-recording equipment.
The TAC is asking the court to stop Rath from claiming it is a front for the pharmaceutical industry and that it is forcing the government to spend millions of rands on toxic drugs.
It says it intends to bring a full-scale defamation action against him at a later date.
Rath has been criticised by a number of organisations for his opposition to anti-retroviral drugs, which he claims are ineffective treatment for HIV/Aids.
The TAC claims Rath is undermining the TAC in order to promote his multivitamins as alternative HIV/Aids treatment.
The Medicines Control Council and the Department of Health are investigating Rath for allegedly running unregistered medical practices in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. — Sapa