Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - October 5, 2001
Jaspreet Kindra
Cosatu president Willie Madisha has travelled repeatedly to Cape Town over the past three weeks in a bid to mobilise church leaders of various denominations. He has met the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Njongonkulu Ndungane, who also chairs the Aids Commission of the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa. He has also held talks with the South African Council of Churches and the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference.
Senior African National Congress members have raised questions about Madisha's activities, emphasising that Cosatu's relationship with the ruling party is already under strain because of the federation's anti-privatisation stand. Ndungane confirms Madisha has approached the churches. "We decided to form a joint campaign. Our clergy report that they are burying people every week, while Cosatu loses members every day."
On ANC allegations that the campaign is politically motivated, Ndugane says: "We are driven by our concern for life - one death is too many. The anti-apartheid struggle cost us much death and blood. We don't want any more deaths.
"Taxpayers' money was spent in compiling the MRC report and we want it released. The ANC cannot tell us what is right and what is wrong; we want to make up our own minds. As people who move on the ground, we know the facts."
Last year Cosatu was the first member of the ruling "tripartite alliance" to publicly criticise President Thabo Mbeki's controversial questioning of the link between HIV and Aids.
Madisha was not available for comment. The Anglican synod is currently meeting in Bloemfontein and is expected to formulate a strongly critical position of the government's stance on the disease.
Cosatu, the Anglican Church, the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference and the Treatment Action Campaign issued a hard-hitting statement in support of the MRC report's findings last week.
Ndungane's spokesperson Loraine Tulleken points out that the churches have played a historic role in mobilising the civil society on issues of justice in the past.
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