JOHANNESBURG, Dec 14 (AFP) - South Africa's government was Tuesday ordered to pay the costs of a legal battle launched by the country's leading AIDS lobby group in the latest bid to speed up the rollout of free anti-retroviral drugs.
Acting judge Natraval Ranchod ruled in favour of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), which has won several court rulings against the government over its response to the AIDS pandemic.
The TAC approached the Pretoria High Court last month, asking it to order Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang to pay the costs of a case that has been dragging on since June, in which it wanted access to government timetables for a roll-out programme.
"In terms of the constitutional principles of appropriate relief and just and equitable redress... the respondent and the department should be ordered to pay the applicant's costs...," the SAPA news agency quoted Ranchod as saying.
The case started with the TAC demanding that the government publicise its targets and timetable for a national plan to roll out free anti-retroviral drugs at all state hospitals.
Reacting to the judgement, TAC president Zackie Achmat welcomed the judgment saying "legally what this means is that the minister had been guilty of unprecedented delinquency."
The lobby group was due to submit its court bill in detail to determine how much the health ministry would have to pay in punitive damages.
"We are going to take every cent of the minister because she flies around (the world) talking nonsense," Achmat told a news conference in Cape Town saying the court ruling was a "good Christmas present."
TAC executive member Mark Heywood, called into question the tenure of the health minister, saying that "in most countries, if a minister had a judgment like this, there would be discussions about his or her future."
Mbeki's cabinet announced in November 2003 that it would start providing the life-prolonging drugs to AIDS patients, apparently according to timetables set out in a document that the lobby group demanded be made public.
The state promised to have more than 50,000 people on treatment by March this year, but did not meet its target.
After several failed requests to the health ministry to release the document, TAC turned to the courts in June and invoked the Public Access to Information Act.
The state then responded in September, saying the document dubbed "Annexure A" was in fact only a draft and cabinet had never adopted it officially -- which meant the TAC could not go ahead with its case.
The group then sued the government for costs.
South Africa has one of the highest AIDS rates in the world, with UNAIDS estimating that 5.3 million people, or one in every nine, are infected.
Mbeki's government started this year with the continent's biggest and most ambitious AIDS treatment programmes but by October only about 15,000 people living with HIV and AIDS were getting free drugs.
Health spokesman Sibani Mngadi recently said the ministry now hoped to reach 50,000 people by March next year.
However, according to the TAC, the implementation schedule of the government's aids plans "remains a secret".
The legal clash over cash is the latest in a long line of showdowns between government and the TAC.
In a case brought by the TAC in 2001, South Africa's Constitutional Court ruled in mid-2002 that the government must give ARVs to all HIV-positive pregnant women.
041214
AF041267
©AFP 2004.. All Rights Reserved. AFP articles contained on the AEGiS web site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without AFP's prior written permission. You may make one copy of each article for your personal, non-commercial use only; more copies would require AFP's prior written permission. http://www.afp.com/
AEGiS is a 501(c)3, not-for-profit, tax-exempt, educational corporation. AEGiS is made possible through unrestricted grants from Boehringer Ingelheim, Elton John AIDS Foundation, the National Library of Medicine, Bridgestone Firestone Trust Fund, and donations from users like you. Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2004. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.
©1990, 2004 - AEGiS. AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content.
