Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
South African Press Association (Johannesburg) - July 27, 2002
He made the announcement on Saturday after a meeting in Cape Town with TAC leader Zackie Achmat, who is himself HIV-positive, and who Mandela described as a "role model".
Despite ill-health, Achmat is refusing ARVs until the government starts making the potentially life-saving drugs available for treatment in state health facilities.
"What I've come here to do is to find out under what conditions will he then be able to take treatment," Mandela told journalists after the hour-and-a-half long meeting at Achmat's Muizenberg home.
"He has informed me, and I don't want to go into details about what we have discussed... but I think that I've got a case to take to the president of the country and to acquaint him with what his (Achmat's) position is."
Mbeki's spokesman Bheki Khumalo told Sapa that Mandela and the president talked to each other from time to time about matters of common interest.
"I'm sure the president would hear what Madiba has to say and take it from there," he said.
Mandela's visit to Achmat -- during which he was also briefed by HIV-positive TAC members from Khayelitsha on the Cape Flats -- is seen as a major boost for the TAC.
The TAC recently won a Constitutional Court decision obliging the government to roll out an ARV programme for preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission, and Mandela himself has been increasingly critical of the government's reluctance to use the drugs.
Mandela said it would have been futile for him to try to get Achmat to start taking the drugs because Achmat's position was that he would not as long as ARVs were not available to everyone, especially the poor.
He said Achmat's stand was based on "fundamental principle, which we all admire". This admiration extended beyond South Africa's borders.
Mandela said he would explain to Mbeki that Achmat was a loyal, disciplined member of the African National Congress and that his stand was not aimed at the party or the government.
"But I hope you will not probe me about things which we are going to discuss with the president of the country. It is sufficient for me to say that I now understand his stand and I know under what conditions he will be prepared to take treatment," Mandela said.
Asked what he thought the ideal government position on ARVs would be, Mandela said he wanted to avoid that question.
He said he supported the government's stance that research into ARVs in an African context was necessary to ensure that if there was a roll-out, the drugs would be safe.
"But of course what worries everybody is the number of people who are dying almost daily," he added.
Achmat said the TAC was humbled by Mandela's visit and that the most important thing about it was that it focused attention on the number of people who were dying unnecessarily and from preventable illnesses.
"We are saying we want the government to provide ARVs to some degree in the public sector, but also important from our point of view is proper treatment of opportunistic infections," he said.
Achmat said he had been apprehensive that Mandela would try to talk him out of his personal stand on taking ARVs.
"I was scared the whole time that I knew Madiba was coming because personally one can't refuse him things, but as Madiba has said its a principle stand, and we'll talk about it later.
"We want to say thank you to him and his wife Graca Machel for giving all of us tremendous hope and dignity in this battle all of us are facing."
Achmat, who was recently bedridden with what was initially feared to be tuberculosis, but which a supporter said on Saturday had been bad bronchitis, said his immune system was still seriously compromised, but "I'm looking much healthier than anyone can say".
The Western Cape -- which has consistently been ahead of the rest of the country on ARV issues -- is already offering ARV treatment in a pilot project at a clinic run by Medicines Sans Frontieres in Khayelitsha.
Clinicians says trials in the province have shown that ARVs decrease mortality by 90 percent and hospitalisation by 80 percent.
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