South Africa's ANC Refuses to Buckle Under AIDS Pressure

South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) walked into a barrage of criticism during this week's South African AIDS Conference 2003, as activists, the church, the media and a high-profile judge spoke out against the government's failure to roll out a national treatment plan. A threat by the Medicines Control Council to ban nevirapine, used to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission -- and endorsed by UN agencies -- was another prominent issue.

The theme of providing a national treatment plan dominated the conference, which ended Wednesday. On Monday, scientists warned that South Africa was entering a "death phase" of the disease and should expect the mortality rate to rise rapidly.

Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said that the administration of AIDS drugs was not a simple task. "Whilst ARVs [antiretrovirals] have an important role in the management of AIDS, [their] administration needs to be taken into account along with a whole variety of other factors," Tshabalala-Msimang told conference delegates. "I submit that the provision of antiretrovirals in the public sector is a subject that must be considered soberly and the government is doing so," she said.

However, Deputy President Jacob Zuma said the government was already dealing with the issue. "We are [in the] process of finalizing several international agreements that will ensure medication to the many people infected with HIV/AIDS," said Zuma, without providing time frames.

Edwin Cameron, a justice of the Supreme Court of Appeal who is HIV-positive, said definite time frames should be set to ensure a rollout.

"I certainly think the pressure is mounting," said Susan Booysen, a political analyst with the University of Port Elizabeth. "But the ANC, it seems, is not sufficiently taking into account the extent to which we are dealing with a generation of AIDS voters ... and also friends and family who are suffering from AIDS," Booysen said. "The ANC thinks it is a policy issue, not a voter issue."

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