This is an archive of the Treatment Action Campaign's public documents from
December 1998 until October 2008. I created this website because the TAC's
website appears unmaintained and people were concerned that it
was becoming
increasingly hard to find important documents.
The menu items have
been slightly edited and a new stylesheet applied to the site. But none of the
documents have been edited, not even for minor errors. The text appears on this
site as obtained from the Internet Archive.
The period covered by
the archive encompassed the campaign for HIV medicines, the civil disobedience
campaigns, the Competition Commission complaints, the 2008 xenophobic violence
and the PMTCT, Khayelitsha health workers and Matthias Rath court cases.
Photo by Jakob Karte. Released in the public domain. This photo was taken near the South Africa/Zimbabwe border. The website on the billboard is www.zimbabwedemocracynow.com.
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) invites submissions for the translation of its magazine, Equal Treatment. Equal Treatment has a wide readership across Southern Africa. The translations will be from English to Xhosa, Zulu, Swati, Venda, Afrikaans and Sotho. In general, ten pages from each issue will be selected for translation. The magazine is published five times a year and the average number of words on a page is 400. Therefore, the number of translated words per issue is:
350 words per page x 10 pages x 6 = 21,000 words.
24 February 2008
Leading health, law and human rights organisations condemn the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) for arresting 143 foreign nationals in Pretoria on Thursday, 21 February 2008. These individuals, from various African countries were seeking refuge from violence in Itireleng, Pretoria and sought safety at the Laudium police station. Instead of being protected from such attacks, they were arrested and have since been transported to the notorious Lindela Holding Facility and are now facing possible deportation.
The Kwazulu-Natal Department of Health has withdrawn its disciplinary action against Dr Colin Pfaff. The TAC welcomes this development.
See our previous statement on disciplinary action against Dr Pfaff.
We agree with Dr Francois Venter, president of the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society who said:
The Population Council has released the results of a microbicide trial conducted in South Africa with the Medical Research Council, University of Cape Town (UCT) and Medical University of South Africa (MEDUNSA) in Isipingo (near Durban), Gugulethu (in Cape Town) and Soshanguve (near Pretoria). The trial found that the microbicide Carraguard was no more effective at reducing HIV transmissions than a placebo. Carraguard was however found to be safe.
At about midnight on Wednesday 30 January 2008 the South African Police Services raided the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg. About 300 people were arrested.
There followed a series of hearings over a two week period at the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court. A series of perplexing actions by Magistrate Du Pisani in Court 2 led to 15 of the church's refugees staying in prison for weeks. Several organisations co-ordinated by the Legal Resource Centre in Johannesburg then made an urgent application to the Johannesburg High Court. The High Court judge apologised on behalf of the judiciary for the way the refugees were treated and made a scathing indictment of Magistrate Du Pisani.