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.

TAC statement on the appointment of Jeff Radebe as Acting Minister of Health

27 February 2007

President Mbeki has appointed Transport Minister Jeff Radebe as the Acting Health Minister.

TAC welcomes the President's effort to address the problem of leadership in the Department of Health following the illness of the Minister of Health. We wish the Minister and her family well at this difficult time.

However, we are concerned about the amount of time Minister Jeff Radebe, who will now have two concurrent portfolios, will be able to dedicate to leading the department when the Department of Health is developing the critical National Strategic Plan for HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections (NSP).

We point this out because last year, when the Minister was absent, an acting minister was appointed. This measure did not resolve the leadership problem in the department, not even in the interim.

We are concerned that if the challenge of leadership in the Health Department persists, the ambitious targets being set for reducing new infections, providing treatment, care and support to people living with HIV will be undermined. While all government departments will have NSP targets to meet, it is the Health Department that must do most of the work and lead the implementation of the NSP.

The public health system is in crisis and requires dedicated leadership. We therefore urge the President to consider all these issues.

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