Global Policy Forum

By Anthony Stoppard

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), a lobby group fighting to get the South African government to make anti-HIV/AIDS drugs, like anti-retrovirals, freely available in the public health system, is getting ready to launch a civil disobedience campaign in support of their demands.

Controversially, the South African government has persistently cast doubts on the effectiveness of anti-retrovirals and has preferred to direct its anti-HIV/AIDS efforts towards education and nutritional programmes.

Internationally, it is commonly accepted that while anti-retrovirals are dangerous, they are presently the best drugs available to ease the impact of the disease and reduce the spread of HIV.

''We are about to embark on the civil disobedience campaign where, if necessary, we are prepared to break laws and risk arrest. This is not a decision we have come to easily or taken lightly because we respect the government, our Constitution, and we are a constitutional law-abiding organisation. But 600 people are dying everyday from HIV/AIDS, and that's a lot of life,'' said TAC spokesperson, Mark Heywood at a press briefing this week.

The campaign is expected to start on Friday - Human Rights Day in South Africa.

In South Africa, the day commemorates the massacre of more than 60 people who where killed when they clashed with the police while defying apartheid laws, in 1961.

TAC is also insisting government agree to a national programme to treat and prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS. The programme was agreed to between representatives of government, trade unions and business organisations in South Africa. AIDS activists are now accusing government of dragging its feet and refusing to sign the deal. The programme includes the provision of anti-retrovirals to people living with HIV/AIDS. Government has insisted that no agreement has been reached - much to the frustration of AIDS activists.

Earlier this week, TAC representatives indicated that they planned to have 600 volunteers arrested in the first week of the campaign, to symbolise the 600 people who die in South Africa every day of AIDS-related illnesses. TAC has been tight-lipped about its plans, but has indicated that their actions could include the disruption of government offices, especially those belonging to the Department of Health. TAC has also started ''civil disobedience preparation workshops'' to train volunteers in civil disobedience.

At a conference on the treatment of the disease, in the coastal city of Cape Town late last week, international anti-HIV/AIDS activists said they would support the TAC campaign. This support would include demonstrations outside South African embassies across the world. At the conference, it was announced that Namibia intended to become the next African country offering public sector anti-retroviral treatment. Botswana already provides anti-retrovirals in its public health system. Uganda has also committed itself to treating 150, 000 people by 2005, while the Nigerian government intends to scale up its treatment.

According to TAC, at current prices, the cost of providing free anti-retrovirals for infected adults in South Africa would start at R224m for the first year, rising to R18 billion in 2015. One U.S. dollar is equal to 8.21 Rand.

The South African government has indicated that it is not convinced spending the money on anti-retrovirals is the best way of fighting the disease.

Most of South Africa's five million people who are living with HIV and AIDS are now starting to get sick, according to reports from AIDS groups. A total of 400,000 people died of AIDS in 2002. Clem Sunter, a strategist for Anglo American, South Africa's largest listed company, warned that: ''The worrying fact for business is that the infection curve does not have an economic impact. The sickness curve does''.

Sunter said that, while the government is regularly criticised by business for not doing enough to fight the epidemic, a recent survey found the majority of the country's companies are largely apathetic about the impending AIDS crisis. Last year Coca-Cola reported, he said, a fall in sales in KwaZulu-Natal, the province where 33.5 percent of the population has HIV, the highest rate in South Africa.

Some of the largest South African companies, such as Anglo American, mining company Goldfields and SAB Miller have, introduced policies which include providing workers with anti-HIV/AIDS drugs.

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