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South Africa: Government Mends Bridges With TAC
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Business Day (Johannesburg)
17 March 2008
Posted to the web 17 March 2008
Hajra Omarjee
Johannesburg
THE African National Congress (ANC) has extended an olive branch to the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), sending senior leaders to address the AIDS lobby group's national congress in Gauteng at the weekend.
In stark contrast to the apparent détente between the organisations, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang snubbed the meeting.
She had been invited to address the 550 delegates from TAC branches around SA as they gathered to plan strategy and elect a new leadership.
The congress resolved to call on the Presidency to "evaluate the ministry of health or revamp it". Although the statement is a departure from the TAC's usual call for Tshabalala-Msimang to be axed, it again emphasised the strained relationship between the parties.
Tshabalala-Msimang has been the object of ridicule, both in SA and abroad, for her unorthodox views on HIV/AIDS treatment. While she has championed dietary remedies, the TAC has taken its campaign to force the government to provide anti-retroviral drugs to the streets in protest, and to court.
ANC national executive committee member Zweli Mkhize, who addressed the meeting on Friday, called on the government and the TAC to bury the hatchet and unite in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
"I am aware that there was quite a lot of strain between the TAC and the government and I said to some of the members that I hoped we could bury that as a chapter of the past. We hope that we will try to reduce all the tensions and bring ourselves to a point where we will move forward as one army taking on one common enemy," Mkhize said.
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In the face of government efforts to counter damaging impressions that it has failed to deal with AIDS, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka yesterday addressed the TAC meeting, offering a partnership with the government.
"This congress happens at a point where we can comfortably say that, as partners, we have a clearer view of strengths, weaknesses and, indeed, comparative advantages of each other as we join forces in the fight against HIV and AIDS," she said.
The TAC's fourth national congress saw the AIDS lobby group's founder and chairman, Zackie Achmat, step aside. Nonkosi Khumalo and Vuyiseka Dubula were elected uncontested as the TAC's new chair- woman and general secretary.
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