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 - November 21, 2005
Health-e recently carried a series of investigative articles on Rath's activities in Cape Town's black townships, where he has encouraged people with HIV/Aids to swop what he claims are "toxic" anti-retrovirals (ARVs) for his products.
Health-e said some of the people who swopped had in fact died, while others who were paraded in public by the Rath Foundation had secretly been continuing their ARV treatment.
The summons, served on Health-e last week, is against the news service itself, two reporters and a freelancer.
In it, Rath says Health-e implied in the articles that he exploited the poverty and illiteracy of HIV/Aids sufferers in order to promote and test his vitamins, and that he was "engaged in an ethically and morally reprehensible experiment on human beings".
They also implied that he persuaded people living with HIV/Aids to "abandon proper treatment in favour of a treatment that does not work", he said.
Health-e manager Kerry Cullinan said on Monday that Health-e has instructed the Johannesburg-based Aids Law Project to defend it.
She said the Health-e stories at issue were subjected to "rigorous fact-checking" before being published and broadcast.
"We are convinced they are accurate, contained fair comment and that their publication and broadcasting were in the public interest," she said.
She said that though the stories were published in various newspapers, including the Sunday Times, Cape Times and The Star, as well as being broadcast on the South African Broadcasting Corporation's (SABC) SAfm, Rath is suing only Health-e and its employees.
She said Qunta Incorporated, the law firm of SABC board deputy chairperson Christine Qunta, is acting for Rath.
Rath has already issued summonses against the South African Press Association, former education minister Kader Asmal, Médécins sans Frontières official Dr Eric Goemaere, editors and reporters from the Independent Group, and HIV/Aids expert Professor Jerry Coovadia, as well as the Democratic Alliance and its health spokesperson Dianne Köhler-Barnard.
The Treatment Action Campaign is waiting for judgement in an application heard in the Cape High Court in June for an urgent interdict against what it said was defamation against it by Rath.
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