Vitamin salesman Matthias Rath on Wednesday renewed his offensive against Aids lobby group the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), saying it should be banned.
The attack, in a statement issued by the Dr Rath Health Foundation, comes less than a week after a full bench of the Cape High Court granted the TAC an interim interdict against Rath and the foundation.
The interdict — which bars Rath from claiming the TAC is a front for the pharmaceutical industry — is the precursor to a TAC defamation action against the German.
The foundation statement, however, hailed the ruling as a ”historic verdict”, saying it has exposed ”one of the most appalling … activities in South Africa since the end of apartheid”.
”The democratically elected government of South Africa is being forced by pressure groups — largely financed by foreign money — to distribute toxic ARV [anti-retroviral] drugs to millions of Aids patients,” it said.
The statement also claimed the judges have affirmed that ”the applicant destabilises democracy in South Africa”.
The so-called ”affirmation” appears to have been taken by the foundation verbatim from the judges’ list of Rath statements against which the TAC wanted protection.
The judges found the TAC had as a matter of deliberate policy not received money from drug companies, either directly or indirectly.
Without having seen the full statement, TAC spokesperson Mark Heywood said on Wednesday night that it appears that Rath and the foundation could be in contempt of court.
”If there’s one word in that press statement that says the TAC fronts for pharmaceutical companies, or directly or indirectly suggests that, they’re in contempt of court,” he said.
If this were the case, the TAC would draw it to the attention of the High Court.
Heywood said Rath and the foundation have shown faith in the courts by instituting defamation actions against a number of people and organisations.
”But when the South African legal system goes against them, they fulminate,” he said.
Misa ‘alarmed’
Also on Wednesday, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) condemned the interdict against Rath.
”Misa is alarmed at the continuing actions of the judiciary to impose restrictions on the publication of information, which constitutes unacceptable judicial censorship,” Misa said in a statement.
Misa is an NGO with members in 11 Southern African Development Community countries. It focuses on promoting ”free, independent and pluralistic media”.
It said the effect of the interdict, granted by a full bench last Friday, was ”no different” to others imposed by the South African judiciary preventing the publication of the Prophet Muhammad cartoons and information about the Oilgate scandal.
”Though Misa holds no brief for Rath and his questionable allegedly anti HIV-Aids conduct, the manner in which he has been restrained from making public statements offends against the principle of free speech and freedom of expression.”
The Misa statement said the TAC had ”another more appropriate remedy” to deal with Rath, and that was to sue him for defamation.
In finding last week that Rath’s claims that TAC was a pharmaceutical front were defamatory, the judges said there seemed to be a well-grounded apprehension of irreparable harm to the TAC.
”In this case the harm cannot be remedied by the payment of damages,” the judges said. ”The defamatory statements are intended to strike at the heart of the activities of the TAC.”
Rath is promoting his vitamin compounds in townships as an alternative to ARVs — a practice that doctors say could have potentially fatal consequences. — Sapa