The state has not responded to a settlement offer in a court case in which it is cited alongside controversial vitamin entrepreneur Matthias Rath, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) said on Wednesday.
The matter is set down for hearing before Judge Burton Fourie on Thursday, but could be postponed.
The TAC and the South African Medical Association have asked the Cape High Court to ban Rath from distributing unregistered medicines, conducting unauthorised clinical trials and making false claims about multivitamins. It has also asked the court to order the state to take reasonable measures to rein in Rath.
TAC spokesperson Nathan Geffen told a media briefing on Tuesday that the campaign filed the application in November 2005.
Since then, the TAC’s relationship with the government has changed dramatically, and last year the organisation met Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and agreed on negotiations to settle with the state.
Last month, Geffen said, the TAC wrote to acting health minister Jeff Radebe, formally offering a settlement, but there has been no response.
Instead, state attorneys have filed papers supporting an application by Rath for late filing of a 2 000-page affidavit that, Geffen said, almost doubled the court record and was clearly designed to ”delay and confuse matters”.
”This will certainly challenge our relations with government,” he said. ”I really really hope it doesn’t take us back to square one … It certainly is a setback.”
According to the letter to Radebe, the TAC is asking the state to commit itself to preventing the illegal sale and distribution of medicines, and prevent ”persons” from conducting unauthorised trials or publishing false advertisements about medicines.
No immediate comment was available from the Health Ministry or the deputy president’s office.
TAC organisers said about 350 supporters will demonstrate outside the court on Thursday morning.
Rath and his foundation have been under fire from Aids activists and the medical profession for claiming vitamins are more effective in treating the disease than antiretrovirals. His organisation maintains antiretrovirals are toxic, and has claimed that the TAC is a front for the pharmaceutical industry. — Sapa