The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has called on the government to reverse its decision to exclude Aids pressure groups from participating in the United Nations General Assembly’s special session on Aids later this year.
The government has barred the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), the Aids Law Project and about four other NGOs from attending the session in New York in May.
”South Africa needs the TAC, and the world has the right to hear their important contribution to the international debate on how to defeat this deadly epidemic,” Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said on Monday.
The TAC has done more than any other organisation to highlight the impact of HIV/Aids and mobilise public opinion on the need for anti-retroviral treatment.
Cosatu agrees with the UN’s special envoy on HIV/Aids in Africa, Stephen Lewis, that the exclusion of the TAC is ”absolutely outrageous”.
Director General of Health Thami Mseleku reportedly explained that his department objected to the presence of the TAC and Aids Law Project at the global forum because they had on previous occasions used such platforms to vilify the government and, particularly, President Thabo Mbeki.
”We would like to present a united voice at the conference, but past experience has taught us that they use such platforms to rubbish what we are doing to tackle the problem,” he told the Sunday Independent.
However, Craven countered that the government is ”setting a dangerous precedent in barring civil society organisations from international forums because they have disagreed with them from time to time”.
”South Africa needs the TAC, and the world has the right to hear their important contribution to the international debate on how to defeat this deadly epidemic,” said Craven.
The Department of Health on Monday ”noted the concern” at its move and said the matter should be discussed and resolved in the best interest of the image of the country. — Sapa