South African health chief's ouster eyed

August 18, 2006

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - AIDS activists occupied several

government offices Friday and took to the streets demanding the

resignation and arrest of South Africa's health minister, accusing

her of allowing unnecessary and preventable deaths because of her

policies on AIDS.

The Treatment Action Campaign staged the protest against Health

Minister Manto Tshabalala Msimang following the death in a Durban

prison earlier this week of a prisoner with HIV/AIDS.

The campaign said government was to blame for not giving him

antiretroviral medicines — a charge the prison department has denied.

The dead man was one of 15 prisoners who recently won a court case

against the Department of Correctional Services and Department of

Health for the government to provide medication to prisoners.

Activists have repeatedly demanded the dismissal of Tshabalala-

Msimang, accusing her of delaying provision of ARVs. Friday,

protesters carried signs reading: " Arrest Manto. "

She has attracted criticism at the international AIDS conference in

Toronto for using the South African stand to promote beets, garlic

and lemon as remedies for the disease.

Dozens of activists, led by the Treatment Action Campaign's president

Zackie Achmat, briefly occupied the offices of the Human Rights

Commission — an independent watchdog — to pressure it to play a

bigger role in securing treatment for AIDS patients.

" When good people keep silent, evil people triumph, " Achmat told

human rights commission representatives. " We've had enough of evil

people triumphing. We need good people like you. "

The demonstrators then moved into nearby local government

headquarters, demanding that local authorities should do more against

the disease.

South Africa has the highest number of people living with HIV in the

world. A government survey, conducted in October 2005, estimated that

5.5 million South Africans are living with the virus, accounting for

more than one-eighth of the estimated cases worldwide. UNAIDS

estimates that nearly 19 percent of people aged 15 to 49 in South

Africa country are HIV-positive.

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