Treatment Action Campaign

On the evening of 23 May, about 150 people displaced by xenophobic violence gathered outside Caledon Square, Cape Town's main police station. They have two demands: (1) they need shelter and protection in the CBD area (or surrounding suburbs) and (2) they want the United Nations to assist most of them to return to their home country or repatriate to a third country.

For four nights they stayed at Herzlia Weizmann School before funding was raised to shelter them for a week. As of Sunday evening 8 June it is not clear where the Caledon Square displaced people will beable to stay. Premier Rasool and Mayor Zille have not given any indication of how they will help them.

It is now more than 3 weeks since widespread xenophobic terror against foreign nationals has erupted in provinces across South Africa. To date, over 20,000 people in the Western Cape have been displaced, some are staying in community halls and local shelters, but many have been taken to refugee camps, some against their will. Across our countrymore than 50 000 people were displaced.

TAC is no longer accepting donations from the public, but instead requests that all donations be given to the various aid organisations that are providing aid relief to the various shelters and camps. It appears that the humanitarian organisations that usually do this kind of work have got the situation under control. TAC wishes to thank everyone for the enormous generosity seen in terms of time, money and goods received over the past weeks. Our deepest gratitude to those who responded to this terrible crisis. If you would like to make a donation, we encourage you to please call one of the organisations below:

Meet at 10am in Cape Town's Keizersgracht Street today to march against xenophobia. The march will proceed to Parliament from 11am. The march will be led by leaders of the refugees/displaced people from xenophobic violence, who will address the media at the ALP offices in 122 Longmarket Street, Cape Town at 2pm today.

Acting on behalf of TAC, the AIDS Law Project (ALP) lodged a complaint with the Competition Commission of South Africa in late 2007 alleging that MSD (Pty) Ltd – the South African subsidiary of multinational drug company Merck – was unlawfully refusing to license the antiretroviral (ARV) medicine efavirenz (EFV) on reasonable terms. (“TAC complains to the Competition Commission about the anti-competitive conduct of the world's largest pharmaceutical company” at http://tac.org.za/community/node/2127.) Today, TAC is pleased to announce that MSD is no longer acting in an anticompetitive way, paving the way for the market entry of a wide range of affordable EFV products.

Also read our updated fact sheet on the complaint.

The distribution team has let us know that clothes are *no longer* needed by the refugees. The items needed remain:

• Blankets
• Toiletries, hygiene items (soap, antiseptic creams, sanitary pads, etc.)
• Baby products (nappies, baby food, bottles)
• Food (esp. maize meal, bread, non-perishable items like tinned food)

(Cape Town, South Africa, 27 May 2008)—the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), AIDS Law Project (ALP) and the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA) jointly condemn Helen Zille, the Mayor of Cape Town, for her continued insistence on setting up internment camps in remote locations throughout the Cape Town Metro area to deal with the thousands of people displaced by xenophobic violence and harassment over the past two weeks.