By: Eric Singh.(South Africa)
Berlin. 18 December 2009
“The Treatment Action Campaign(TAC) of South Africa is the recipient of the Human Rights Prize from the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung* (Foundation) for the year 2009. It is a recognition of TAC’s steadfastness in the fight against HIV/AIDS even in the face of ignorance of this disastrous disease in the corridors of the highest office of the country. This award is also an appreciation of the tremendous effort, despite many obstacles, that TAC has made in fighting for human rights in the field of health; educating the public against stigmatising this pandemic, and most important of all, through your actions, you have placed this topic on the international agenda”, said Ms Anke Fuchs, Chairperson of the Foundation.
The award ceremony was held at the FES (Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung) Headquarters in Berlin on Human Rights Day – 10 December. It was received by Ms Nonkosi Khumalo, Chairperson of TAC, who was accompanied by fellow campaigner Ms Noloyiso Ntamenthlo. Your scribe used the occasion to interview both of them, shortly before their departure to South Africa.
In her eulogy, Prof. Dr. Herta Däubler-Gmelin, former German Minister of Justice, and present Chairwoman of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, congratulated TAC and encouraged it to continue with the tasks that they set themselves in 1994 and refuse to be daunted by obstacles that could hamper their work.
Ms Khumalo, the activities of your organisation haves made South Africa fully aware of this horrible disease - AIDS. Your work has won much acclaim and fortunately this acclamation has not remained within the borders of your country. It has permeated its way to the international arena and that is why we are chatting together here in Berlin. Congratulations to the both of you and TAC on winning this award.
Thank you.
Tell me, why was TAC and the Thabo Mbeki-led Administration at loggerheads?
From 1999 basically, until 2008, we were not seeing eye-to-eye with the Mbeki government because we felt that they were not taking any political leadership in dealing with HIV/AIDS in South Africa. For us what was of great concern is that the ANC knew before it took over the reins of government in 1994, that many of the people who were coming back from exile were living with HIV/AIDS, and coming into a country which was beginning to see some growth in the epidemic per se. This was recognized by the ANC.
We don’t understand what changed between 1999 and 2008 when the government could have made decisions on how they could engage themselves in better delivery in services around health; especially HIV/AIDS which in 1990 was around 0.5 percent. Now it is sitting on 29.07 and the trend is moving upwards. In the space of 15 years it grew in numbers. If we had a government that acted fast enough, the numbers would have been much smaller. That is what led to confrontation.
Thabo Mbeki is not a medical doctor but a highly trained economist. How on earth could he make medical pronouncements on such an important matter? Can you explain this?
I cannot say why. On the other hand if you are not a medically trained person, then the best thing under such circumstances is to enlist the help of those who come from the profession. The tragedy here is that his Minister of Health was a trained medical doctor. What on earth happened there is a mystery. The two of them just bluntly refused to listen to those in the field who knew otherwise, not there is a shortage of these experts in the country.
What was the role played by the German, Dr Matthias Rath? How come Mbeki allowed this man to influence him to such astronomical heights, although this very same man was viewed as a disaster in Germany?
This “famous” German doctor obviously saw an opportunity to exploit the situation in South Africa where the leaders of the country were almost unanimous in their dismissal of antiretroviral (ARV) tablets as having serious side-effects. Nobody disputes this fact. I myself have gone through chemotherapy and suffered serious side-effects. No medical intervention is free from side effects. This is a reality and we must face up to it. Matthias Rath exploited the opportunity. He promoted vitamins instead of other medication. He enjoyed the backing of the highest authority in the Ministry of Health.
The new President, Jacob Zuma, has taken a different stance and come out fully determined to meet this pandemic head on. How would the new situation help you in your work?
He has had his flaws as well as Deputy President under Thabo Mbeki. He could have done much better than he did. I think he could have pronounced himself and behaved better than he did in public. But now he is the President. Therefore, such pronouncements are most welcome. President Zuma’s promise of improving healthcare in South Africa, and specifically on how they would tackle the problem of HIV is a move in the right direction. It is also an acknowledgement and gives credence to the work that we have done so far. We are glad that the president recognizes that the ANC-led government has not done enough. So we are going to give him a chance. A chance like any other person. Mbeki blew it up. Zuma will be given the same opportunity. If he delivers, then that is good. If not, we are still here. We are not going to demobilize simply because he spoke positively about what the government wants to do.
Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini has lifted a ban on circumcision that was imposed on the Zulu nation over two centuries ago. He has done this, according to reports, to assist in the fight against HIV/AIDS. What is your opinion regards this move?
There is a raging debate about male circumcision. There is a group that does not believe that
male circumcision should be encouraged because it gives a false sense of security to people. There are also concerns, rightly so, from Women’ Rights Organisations who are saying this will put women more at risk because they cannot negotiate for more safer sex when men are circumcised. There are many cultural issues surrounding male circumcision. I think it is also fair to pronounce that is not done solely for HIV. The message is quite clear. Circumcision is no guarantee against AIDS.
You mentioned safe sex. There are groups encouraging abstention. The Catholic Church is against the use of protection like condoms. These are just two examples of the battles that are going on especially on the African continent. How do such sentiments affect or encourage your work?
HIV/AIDS prevention is not just about the use of condoms. It concerns attitudes and behavioural changes. These are tough nuts to crack and means very extensive persuasion work on our part. We cannot pretend that people will not have sex. What we are doing is talking about sex openly. For some reason or other sex is a taboo theme. This has to change and the message must be brought home to the people.
HIV/AIDS is a problem. Isn’t poverty a part of that problem? Should these two factors not be enjoined?
I agree with you completely. It is about poverty; development; ensuring rights of women. There is a whole range of things associated with poverty. I am not saying it in the way Thabo Mbeki did. He said that poverty causes AIDS, although it is a contributory factor.
The organisation TAC was formed exactly 11 years ago today. Congratulations once again. You are the TAC District Coordinator in Lusikisiki, Deepvale in the Eastern Cape Province. Tell us something about this organisation. To operate any organisation you need funds, personnel, office and equipment, and a “thousand” other things.
Noloyiso Ntamenthlo: Our organisation was founded in Cape Town on 10 December 1998 – International Human Rights Day. Zackie Achmat, together with 10 other anti-apartheid Gay Rights activists founded the group. What started out as a very small protest group, has become a much broadly-based body with chapters in many regions of the nation with a largely black and poor constituency. TAC advocates for increased access to treatment, care and support for people living with HIV and campaigns to reduce new infections.
Today TAC has 16 000 members, 267 branches and 72 full time staff members. It has become the leading civil society force behind comprehensive health care services for infected people. TAC has received world-wide acclaim and numerous accolades and was a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. In 2006 the New Times dubbed TAC ‘the world’s most effective AIDS group’.
Lusikisiki is an area of extreme illiteracy, poverty and unemployment. This means that a tremendous amount of propaganda work is necessary to educate and make people aware of their rights and see to it that they receive proper treatment. In order to carry out such a mammoth task, I am happy to say that we have many volunteers (at the moment 66) to help us carry out our responsibilities to the community.
Nonkosi Khumalo: Some of the very defining features of the power of our organisation is how much knowledge people have of it. In TAC, many people have learnt quite a lot about HIV. They know about the medical and clinical aspect of it and also have learnt the constitutional obligation in terms of the right to life, health and dignity. Broadly how do you locate that in the current politics nationally and internationally? Unless you know how to manoeuvre, strategize and engage government and other key stakeholders, your campaign is as good as nothing.
This is the tactic that we have been using over the years - mobilize and educate, involve and engage. There is a tendency that illiterate people know nothing about the pandemic. You will be amazed as to the knowledge that these people have compared to the so-called literate community.
Financially, it is only now that TAC is beginning to face difficulties. Before that we were able to raise enough funds to organize our activities, to employ local people. We are grateful to the thousands of volunteers who have been a pillar of our strength. They are not paid a cent. Their only gain is knowledge and the feeling of participating in a very strong humanitarian campaign.
From early last year, we had to cut our budget by 63 percent. Many reasons are being advanced by donors both national and international. Recession, cutting of budgets, and, and, and. It is appropriate to repeat here the question, how do you make a decision between cutting spending for health and giving money to the banks. How does one justify not giving money for health, education and civil society work, but will give trillions of dollars to bail out a bank here, a car manufacturer there and so on.
I am aware these are issues of capitalist thinking of saying we have the need for more money and businesses have to strive forward. That’s fine. Businesses thrive but where is the element of human development or a society that is healthy? In Africa it is not just about how international communities are responding to the recession. Huge sums of money are given to the military and for arms as if we are at war in some country somewhere. Africa is not a rich continent. Therefore, it is important to say that with the resources at hand we can do more. It is a question of priority”.
Thank you for this interview and good luck to the both of you in your illustrious work for human rights and dignity.
• The Human Rights Prize of FES was established in 1994 and awarded to persons and/or organisations for outstanding performance in the service and promotion of human rights and dignity. It is worth 10.000 Euros and comes from a fund set up by a Hamburg couple which is administered by FES. FES bears the name of the first democratically elected President of Germany in 1918 (1871-1925). It was set up in 1925 and banned by the Nazis in 1933 immediately after Hitler grabbed power. It re-emerged in 1947.
Eric Singh
freelance journalist (South Africa)
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