iClinic - July 10, 2000
Chanting, waving placards, from traditional healers to the Archbishop of Cape Town, from transvestites to labour unionists, from nurses to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, almost 1 500 people gathered at the start of the Global March for HIV/AIDS Treatment on Sunday at the Durban City Hall.
The march, organised by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and co-sponsored by the Health Gap Coalition, went off very peacefully and ended with the hand-over of a memorandum to AIDS2000 chair Jerry Coovadia, UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot, and Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
Treatment Action Campaign activist Zackie Achmat said that the reality that millions in SA will die from HIV/AIDS is unacceptable and that the TAC and the 230 organisations in 33 countries supporting the Global March for HIV/AIDS Treatment hoped to stop what will become a "holocaust of the poor".
He went on to say that the millions of deaths predicted by the latest UNAIDS report and others are the responsibility of drug companies who put people's lives before profits and governments who have become fatalistic about people dying.
"Both drug companies and government put costs and budget constraints before people's lives. Our demand to provide AZT or nevirapine to pregnant women in SA is not negotiable. We also demand that Pfizer reduces fluconazole to R4 and if they do not comply, that government takes out a compulsory licence against Pfizer," said Achmat.
He also said that the march not just a protest march, but also one of solidarity.
"Money and greed is killing people," said a UK supporter in the crowd. "In the UK and other rich countries the number of new HIV infections in just less than a year is what SA gets in two days," she said.
Eric Goemaere of Medicines sans Frontieres (Doctors without Broders) said that: "I am sick and tired of statements by pharmaceuticals and government officials that even when drugs are provided for free, people in developing countries would not be able to use them - in a country as poor as Bangkok we are using AZT and it is feasible, and in Brazil nevirapine and AZT have been made available through the public health system."
AIDS Legal Network and TAC activist Mark Heywood said on Monday that he was very pleased with the march and support in numbers will enable the activists to keep up the pressure on drug companies and government, who will have until the end of this week to make an initial response. The step after that is increasing international and legal action.
Heywood said that simultaneous litigation against international drug companies will be taking place in various countries such as India, Venezuela, Brazil and North America.
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