The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) marched in Pretoria on Tuesday, saying it could not support the ”lies” the government was telling the United Nations about its treatment programme.
”We as the TAC cannot support the lies that government is telling the UN. The first lie is that we have the biggest [treatment] programme in the world,” said TAC chairperson Zackie Achmat.
”The truth is that we have the biggest need in the world and we are not meeting that need.”
Earlier in the day Achmat said they were marching on the Union Buildings in solidarity with the campaigners attending a UN conference on the disease on Wednesday.
The group of about 2 000 marchers also aimed to put pressure on all governments attending the meeting to adopt HIV/Aids treatment policies.
Achmat said truth, leadership and science were at the core of appropriately dealing with the pandemic in the country.
The group also handed over a memorandum to two representatives of the Presidency, outlining their demands for Aids treatment in the country and the stance it required government to take on the issue. The memorandum was given to the Presidency as the TAC felt its interactions with Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang had thus far proved fruitless.
Amongst others, the memorandum called for an end to ”state-endorsed” denial on the disease, and for President Thabo Mbeki and the health minister to commit to ending what it termed unscientific messages about the disease.
It also wanted the law to be enforced against those taking advantage of the vulnerability of people with HIV/Aids.
Social issues, such as gender-based violence and the legacy of the migrant-labour system in the mining industry, were also highlighted by the memorandum as requiring government’s attention.
Achmat urged for those governments who had not applied treatment policies by the next UN Aids conference in 2010 to be charged with ”crimes against humanity”.
The health department at first refused a place in the official South African delegation to the conference to the TAC and the Aids Law Project. The department later extended an invitation to the TAC, which the TAC turned down because other pressure groups were still barred from the delegation.
”Our delegation has already arrived in New York and our deputy chairperson, Khensani Mavasa from Limpopo, who is openly living with HIV, will be addressing the high-level meeting,” said Achmat.
Although the group was travelling independently of government they would still ”have access to all the conference activities”.
Achmat said the trip had been funded by TAC sponsors.
”We say to government: We don’t need your permission to speak truth to power! We have always spoken truth to power and will continue to do so!” Achmat said to the crowd. — Sapa