Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - October 12, 2003
Claire Keeton
Barely a week later Moeketsi, a volunteer HIV counsellor from Alexandra near Johannesburg, died of Aids, leaving behind two children.
Accepting the Nelson Mandela Health and Human Rights Award on behalf of the TAC this week, chairman Zackie Achmat said : "During our civil disobedience campaign from March 20 to July 31, more than 100 of our leaders have died."
President Thabo Mbeki may not know anyone close to him who has died of Aids, but TAC activists bury their loved ones every weekend.
A fortnight after Moeketsi's death, the TAC's gifted poet, 36-year-old Edward Mabunda of Winterveld, near Pretoria, also died.
Mabunda was one of 650 TAC members who took a "treatment train" to Cape Town in February to join the "Stand Up For Our Lives" march to Parliament.
The night before he died Mabunda, a local ANC leader, made his last public appeal. "I think it is high time that TAC started civil disobedience to show the government that 600 people a day are dying of Aids. We want ordinary people in South Africa to have these antiretrovirals," Mabunda said on his deathbed.
A week later Charlene Wilson, a 29-year-old TAC activist from Eersterus, near Pretoria, also died. She had just started antiretroviral therapy but got the drugs when she was already too weak to withstand their side-effects. She died of complications from them.
Then there are children, like five-year-old Sibongile Mazeka, who turned to the TAC for comfort. Sibongile, from Guguletu near Cape Town, wanted a party with the TAC and she got her wish before she died, on the fateful day of September 11 2001. Her pallbearers were children in "HIV-positive" T-shirts.
The deaths are unending. Only this week the TAC lost two activists in the Western Cape. When Achmat accepted the award this week, he paid tribute to his fallen comrades.
Handing the award over, Mandela's wife, Gra a Machel, said: "TAC is an extraordinary group of people who have moved the nation and advanced government policy."
Since its launch in 1998, the TAC has stood up for the rights of people with HIV/Aids.
The TAC was instrumental - through mass protests and legal action - in accelerating access to nevirapine for HIV-positive pregnant women to prevent HIV being transmitted to their babies.
One TAC member, Sarah Hlaele, who was refused nevirapine, submitted an affidavit to support the TAC's case to compel the government to make the drug available.
But Hlaele, who attended court every day with her baby, was not around to celebrate with the TAC on July 5 2002 when the Constitutional Court ruled in its favour. She had died that April.
"Within months of that ruling our membership went up from 2 000 to 7 000," said Achmat, remembering "Constitution Day" as one of the TAC's best moments.
It was a joyful day in the bleak five years of the TAC's struggle for access to treatment. But the urgency remains.
Commenting on this campaign, TAC treasurer Mark Heywood said : "Even if government cannot immediately roll out an equitable treatment plan, starting now can save some lives and save some children from becoming orphans."
Dr Des Martin, president of the Southern African HIV Clinicians' Society, attributed the sudden turnaround by the government on antiretrovirals as being "in no small measure due to the TAC".
A national treatment plan, handed to the Department of Health at the end of September, is being reworked before being given to the Cabinet.
031012
ST031004
Copyright © 2003 - The Sunday Times. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the Sunday Times Permissions Desk.
AEGiS is a 501(c)3, not-for-profit, tax-exempt, educational corporation. AEGiS is made possible through unrestricted funding from Boehringer Ingelheim, Bridgestone/Firestone Charitable Trust, Elton John AIDS Foundation UK, the National Library of Medicine, AIDS Walk of Orange County, and donations from users like you.
Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2003. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.
AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.
Copyright ©1980, 2003. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .