Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - April 4, 2006
Tisha Eetgerink
"South Africa needs the TAC, and the world has the right to hear their important contribution to the international debate on how to defeat this deadly epidemic," Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said on Monday. He said the government is "setting a dangerous precedent in barring civil society organisations from international forums because they have disagreed with them from time to time".
The TAC has done more than any other organisation to highlight the impact of HIV/Aids and mobilise public opinion on the need for anti-retroviral treatment, Craven said.
Cosatu agrees with the UN's special envoy on HIV/Aids in Africa, Stephen Lewis, that the exclusion of the TAC is "absolutely outrageous".
TAC general secretary Sipho Mthathi told the Mail & Guardian Online on Tuesday that the government refrained from consulting the TAC when it compiled a report on the HIV/Aids situation in the country.
"The report for the UN was supposed to be a combined one by both civil representatives and the government. The report now is dishonest and it does not reflect on failures in the treatment of the epidemic. Government should be much clearer in its approach to fight HIV/Aids," Mthathi said.
Mthathi stressed the importance for the barred NGOs to be heard in New York. "Yes, a lot of progress has been made, but no, we are not there yet. A lot of people are being treated for the disease, but eight times more people are in need of treatment. People are still dying of Aids every day. To bar the TAC from going to the UN's special session is an attack on global society."
Director General of Health Thami Mseleku reportedly explained that his department objected to the presence of the TAC and ALP at the global forum because they had on previous occasions used such platforms to vilify the government and, particularly, President Thabo Mbeki.
"We would like to present a united voice at the conference, but past experience has taught us that they use such platforms to rubbish what we are doing to tackle the problem," he told the Sunday Independent.
Head of the ALP Mark Heywood said it is not the ALP's objective to vilify the government. "But there is reason for critique. The report the government sent is factually inaccurate and it paints an overly positive picture in both prevention and treatment response of HIV/Aids in South Africa," he told the M&G Online on Tuesday.
"We very much want to resolve this situation. The first step for the government should be to reverse its decision and then there's a basis for talking. It is not in the ALP's power to reverse the bar; the ball is in the government's court."
The Department of Health "noted the concern" at its move and said the matter should be discussed and resolved in the best interest of the image of the country. It was not available for further comment on Tuesday.
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