Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - March 15, 2005
Marianne Merten and Nawaal Deane
It emerged this week that the South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco) in Khayelitsha has endorsed the pamphlet.
Last week the ASA banned an advert of the Dr Rath Health Foundation published in the Mail & Guardian last November. It ruled that the advert's attack on the anti-retroviral (ARV) drug AZT misled consumers and that it made "exaggerated" claims about the effectiveness of the foundation's multivitamins in treating HIV/Aids.
In pamphlets distributed a day later the foundation said the ASA "hides behind a private ... company funded by the drug industry to block life-saving health information in South Africa" and was helping to protect pharmaceutical monopolies.
It said that the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of South Africa was an ASA member. In its ruling, the ASA said "member bodies ... are not involved in the decision-making process at directorate level and the alleged bias can therefore not arise".
However, the foundation reserves its fiercest criticism for the TAC which it claims is funded by multinational pharmaceutical companies, and that it "forces government to spread disease and death ... and ... ruin our economy".
The anti-TAC posters appeared in Khayelitsha, Phillippi, Guguletu and Nyanga.
One of the foundation's grassroots campaigns has also caused confusion - it is distributing vitamin pills in Khayelitsha that bear an uncanny resemblance to efavirenz, an ARV drug.
Sanco in Khayelitsha this week defended its endorsement. "These posters are just informing residents," said chairperson Mzanywa Ndibongo. "They had this info and it looked good. [With] the medicines ... there's no after-effects like with AZT."
Sanco branches agreed to the posters at a recent general council meeting after the Dr Rath Foundation approached it.
It also emerged this week that the foundation has made overtures to Parliament's health committee.
A former foundation employee, who asked not to be named, said Rath operated in a similar fashion in promoting his products in Europe and the United States.
"In Europe it was heart disease and cancer, in South Africa it is Aids," said the former employee. "Rath then creates a huge hype around the toxicity of the drugs to create confusion among sick people desperate for options."
The employee said the foundation used local organisations, such as the Traditional Healers Organisation (THO), Sanco and the National Association of People with Aids (Napwa) as "cannon fodder", as the foundation needed them to hand out samples of foundation products in communities.
Members of these organisations were later cited as case studies to back up claims that they have been cured of Aids. "This will legitimise the distribution of Rath products that have not undergone clinical trials."
Foundation spokesperson Anthony Brink, an Aids dissident who is said to have influenced President Thabo Mbeki, said it was "an insult to Sanco and the THO [to say] they are up for bribes. All our campaigns are financed by patients, and ... ex-patients," he said.
"Every statement ... is supported by authoritative independent medical and scientific references filling three level-arch files. The reason the ASA is not willing to acknowledge these findings is that it is funded by the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of South Africa."
TAC spokesperson Nathan Geffen described the THO and Napwa's decision to align themselves with Rath as "an act of desperation".
"These organisations have a poor track record for campaigns around HIV prevention and treatment."
Geffen added that the TAC's accounts were public. However, he said the attack on the TAC was secondary to the attack on scientifically proven medicines.
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