Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
South African Press Association - April 25, 2005
De Lille made the concession under cross-examination after earlier testifying that the information entered the public domain when a report into a drugs trial they were undergoing was made available to journalists.
Asked whether the women's names were ever used by those journalists, De Lille told the court she is 'not exactly sure'.
When it was put to her that they had never used the names, De Lille responded: 'But they had the report.'
De Lille was asked by Daniel Berger, appearing for the Aids Law Project: 'Can you point to a single report anywhere in the media where any of the plaintiffs' names or faces were published at any time before or after the publication of your book?'
'No,' she replied.
The three women, who the court has ordered be identified only as NM, SM and LH, are suing De Lille, author Charlene Smith and publisher New Africa Books over the publication of their identities and HIV status in De Lille's biography, Patricia de Lille.
They are claiming R200 000 each from both De Lille and Smith, and demand that their names be removed from the book.
De Lille allegedly intervened on the women's behalf after they approached her with complaints about an HIV/Aids drugs trial in which they participated at Kalafong hospital, outside Pretoria, between 1999 and 2001.
Rejecting a submission by Berger that her book is the only document that publicly disclosed the plaintiffs' names and HIV status, De Lille told the court a University of Pretoria-commissioned report into the drugs trial had also been made public.
The report had been distributed to people other than those agreed to by the plaintiffs, among them two journalists from noseweek magazine, she said.
She later, however, conceded that she only found out the journalists had the report the month after her book was published in March 2002, when both made sworn affidavits to this effect for an urgent application brought to have her book removed from the shelves. The hearing continues.
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