South African AIDS Lobby Group Wins Costs in Case Against Government

Today, the Pretoria High Court ordered the South African government to pay the legal costs associated with Treatment Action Campaign's latest effort to speed the rollout of free antiretrovirals. The AIDS lobby group last month asked the court to order Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang to pay the costs of a case filed in June, in which TAC demanded the government release timetables and targets of its rollout program.

"In terms of the constitutional principles of appropriate relief and just and equitable redress ... the respondent and the department should be ordered to pay the applicant's costs ...," Judge Natraval Ranchod was quoted as saying.

In November 2003, President Thabo Mbeki's cabinet announced it would provide free AIDS drugs to patients through the public health system, apparently according to timetables set out in a document. The government promised to have more than 50,000 people on treatment by March of this year but failed to meet that target. After several requests to the ministry to release the document, "Annexure A," TAC filed suit invoking the Public Access to Information Act.

The government eventually responded in September, saying Annexure A was only a draft and was never officially adopted by the cabinet -- effectively halting TAC's suit. TAC then sued the government for its legal costs.

Back to other news for December 14, 2004