Forty-three members of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), including the organisation’s chairperson Zackie Achmat, appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday on charges of trespassing.
The appearance follows last week’s TAC occupation of a provincial government building in Cape Town to press demands for antiretroviral drugs for prisoners and the resignation of Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
The case was postponed until September 7 to allow the group’s attorney, William Kerfoot, to take comprehensive instructions.
A warrant of arrest was authorised for one member of the group who was not present, but is to be held over until the next court date.
TAC is expected to expand its civil disobedience campaign on Thursday, which it has labelled a ”day of action”.
The building it occupied last week housed the offices of the Western Cape provincial minister of health, Pierre Uys, and his department.
The activists occupied the foyer when they were thwarted in their attempt to reach Uys’s 20th floor office. — Sapa