E-drug: Aids protests in South Africa
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Aids protesters accuse Pretoria ministers of manslaughter
Rory Carroll, Friday 21 March 2003, The Guardian
Hundreds of Aids activists gathered illegally and marched into South
African police stations yesterday to begin a campaign of civil
disobedience against the government for its refusal to provide
life-extending drugs to those with HIV.
Chanting, singing and waving banners, they laid accusations of
manslaughter against two cabinet ministers they say are letting 600
people die every day by denying the medicine to South Africa's 4.7
million infected people, more than any other country. They blame
the health minister, Manto Tshabalala Msimang, for denying
anti-retrovirals to state hospitals and clinics, and trade and industry
minister, Alec Erwin, for blocking production of the drugs in South
Africa. The accusations relate to 16 specific deaths. The
government continued to recommend people infected with the virus
to boost their immune systems with garlic, onions, olive oil and
"African potato", an African corm, Hypoxis hemerocallidea, used in
traditional healing with has attracted medical attention in recent
years as a protection against the onset of Aids. The activists vowed
to revive the African National Congress's tactic against apartheid of
committing peaceful but illegal acts which prompt mass arrests and
result in police detention cells overflowing.
Police officers in Sharpeville, the township where their predecessors
killed 69 apartheid protesters in 1960, were dumbstruck when 200
people in red t-shirts emerged from a nearby church and marched to
the station door.
The campaign, which is expected to intensify in the coming weeks,
steps up the four-year effort by a coalition of civil groups to force
the government to abandon its view that Aids drugs are too
expensive and too toxic.
"This is just the first shot in the campaign. Later on we will have
sit-ins and occupy government buildings," said Mark Heywood, who
led the march in Sharpeville, chosen for its symbolism of struggle
against oppression. In similar protests in Cape Town and Durban
the police were given a "people's docket" demanding that they
investigate the death of "many thousands of people who died from
Aids or Aids related illnesses, and whose deaths could have been
prevented had they been given access to treatment".
Dudu Dlamini, 28, who is HIV-positive and watched her
two-year-old son Tshepiso die of an Aids-related illness in 1999,
travelled from Johannesburg to join the Sharpeville protest, even
though an American benefactor has started paying for her
treatment. "It should be available to everybody," she said.
Tandi Sipambo, 30, who was waiting to add her name to those
accusing the two ministers, said she had watched her boyfriend
Steve Maphanga, 29, succumb to a painful death last April. She
was diagnosed with HIV last year and cannot afford the drugs,
even though they can cost less than�20 a month. "It's not right,
the government should help," she said.
At least 200,000 South Africans are expected to die from
Aids-related illnesses this year. The South African Medical
Association joined leaders of churches, trade unions and gay and
lesbian groups in supporting yesterday's protests, which were led
by the Treatment Action Campaign.
An international outcry against the South African government for
doing less than poorer neighbours such as Botswana and Namibia
prompted the cabinet to change direction last April and promise to
provide the drugs, but its critics say it has continued to drag its feet
because President Thabo Mbeki remains in thrall to dissident
scientists who question the link between HIV and Aids.
In public Mr Mbeki plays down or ignores the epidemic, and some
ministers follow suit. Ms Tshabalala Msimang, who told the
Guardian last year that South Africa could not afford the drugs
partly because it needed submarines to deter US aggression,
outlined this week a diet strong on herbs to boost immune systems.
No one disputes the importance of food in fighting the virus, but
she provoked further controversy by appointing Roberto Giraldo, a
leading figure among those who deny the link between HIV and
Aids, as a consultant on nutrition.
The finance minister, Trevor Manuel, joined the fray by saying the
rhetoric about the effectiveness of anti-retrovirals was "a lot of
voodoo", and that buying them would be a "waste of very limited
resources".
In Sharpeville an Anglican priest who led the protesters in prayer,
the Rev Douglas Torr, said it was sad that those who fought to
liberate South Africa from apartheid needed to fight again.
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