Volume 10, No.1 - February 2001

Never Again

HIV/Aids - Expose the Democratic Alliance's

By Mazibuko K. Jara, SACP Media Officer A Democratic Alliance (DA) press statement of 27 October 2000 demanded: "Cheaper anti-retroviral drugs for treating HIV/AIDS".

Many people with HIV/AIDS will invest hope in Tony Leon's false promise to provide HIV/AIDS drugs. After meeting unnamed drug companies and officials of UNAIDS and WHO, Leon claimed to "be able to take action…to make life-saving drugs available".

But the history and current performance of the DA and its predecessors on HIV/AIDS, shows that it is not fighting for all people with HIV/AIDS to have a right to HIV/ treatment. The DA has been conspicuously absent from every debate and campaign to win affordable medicines and to build a quality healthcare system for all.

Even worse, the DA voted against the Medicines and Related Substances Amendment Act in 1997, and not just because of technicalities, as Dr. Kobus Gouws argues in a letter to the Citizen on 26 October.

As the DA knows, a sustainable and affordable HIV/AIDS drugs programme requires substantial price reductions, through either compulsory licensing or parallel importing. Both these policy tools were the main provisions of the 1997 Act which the DA blocked when it voted against it.

Following this vote, and up to this day, the same drug companies which ironically now Tony Leon holds as our saviours have held up the implementation of this legislation by taking it to court.

HIV and AIDS thrive in the legacy of poverty and social collapse left by the National Party, now the DA's junior partner. The Democratic Party has singularly failed to mobilise, discipline and educate its own constituency - big business - to respond positively to the challenges presented by the apartheid legacy and the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Instead, it has supported the investment strike by the bosses and repeatedly attacked policies and legislation intended to improve and broaden access to health care. No wonder then the scepticism of the HIV/AIDS Treatment Action Campaign at the DA's misuse of HIV/AIDS to win votes.

Tony Leon attacks the government for refusing to take advantage of "discount offers" by drug companies. But what did he actually say after meeting with the drug companies? "No-one has suggested that Anti-Retrovirals be universally provided to all HIV/AIDS sufferers [sic] as of a right. However desirable, that is unaffordable for South Africa." The DA slogan of "life-saving drugs" for "treating HIV/AIDS" is clearly limited to what can be achieved with promises and discounts by the drug companies.

Leon and the DA have no courage to address the real problem - how to overcome the over-pricing barriers placed by drug companies which limit access to essential life-saving drugs for all people with HIV/AIDS in South Africa and other poor countries.

The DA limits their promise of drugs to pregnant women and rape survivors. Clearly, the DA cannot fail to understand the need to treat all HIV/AIDS related opportunistic infections and not just the prevention of mother-to-child-transmission (MTCT). The DA is exploiting the public sympathy for the plight of pregnant women, children and rape survivors at risk of HIV transmission to win votes.

COSATU, the Treatment Action Campaign, the SACP and others have campaigned for access to affordable drugs. Leon and the DA have been in control of the Western Cape for more than six years. Only one area (Khayelitsha) at present has an MTCT reduction programme. Other areas were suddenly "rolled out" before the election.

But clinics and hospitals do not have Fluconazole for systemic thrush or cryptococcal meningitis - these are basic, essential and life-saving drugs which successfully treat conditions affecting the majority of HIV positive people in this country. Clinics and hospitals do not provide prophylaxis to prevent pneumonia in children with HIV/AIDS.

Anyway the Khayelitsha project was started and completely driven by the ANC. The DA is simply lying when they claim victory for this. We did not hear a word from them about access to treatment until the local government elections were upon us and AIDS became the issue of the day.

The DA avoids the real challenge - the transformation of the health care system. This means providing medicines, investing in healthcare jobs and infrastructure, organising large-scale training of healthcare professionals, and addressing all the obstacles to quality healthcare in the private and public sectors.

Providing quality healthcare for all, including HIV/AIDS treatment, means:

Tony Leon has suddenly discovered that the drug companies have made "genuine" offers of discounts. He cites the recent deal between the Senegalese government and the drug companies as an example. But less than 2% of Senegal's people have HIV/AIDS and the government and international agencies fund the discount programme. Despite the discounts, fewer than 1000 people in Senegal will receive anti-retroviral therapy.

Then Leon uses Botswana (the same examples used by drug companies), which has a very high HIV infection rate - nearly 30%. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Merck will fund its programme. But Botswana is one of the richest African countries, with good healthcare infrastructure, and its population is a twentieth of South Africa's.

Tony Leon claims that the DA anti-retroviral policy is "in step" with the practice of African countries - this practice has been to provide anti-retroviral access to high-ranking government officials and the wealthy elites while allowing the majority of poor people with HIV/AIDS to die premature deaths.

A genuine and sustainable healthcare programme for Sub-Saharan Africa and all poor countries cannot rely on donations or discounts by the drug companies. Apart from great public relations, these donations and discounts aim to prevent healthcare reform and transformation that will put people's lives before profits.

HIV/AIDS encompasses political, economic and social realities that require astute analysis and bold action. Governments need to lead efforts for prevention, treatment and care. At times, this requires tackling powerful vested interests - whether social stigma, gender inequality or economic power. But the DA ignore these issues and instead score points with false statements and false promises, to win votes at the expense of people's hopes and lives.

The message to all South Africans must be - unite to transform the healthcare system, control the drug companies to ensure affordable HIV/AIDS drugs, treat HIV/AIDS related opportunistic infections and provide affordable healthcare for all people.

 

Stop profiteering from the sick

By Jacqueline Mpolokeng, COSATU Health and Safety Policy Co-ordinator

The Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Association's court challenge to provisions of the Medicines and Related Substance Control Amendments Act in 1997 - which allow for the parallel importation of generic drugs - is a serious stumbling bloc to the transformation of the health care system.

The democratic parliament passed the Act to facilitate access to cheap medication, because of the exorbitant cost of medicines in South Africa, especially HIV/AIDS-related drugs. From its inception, opposition parties and the pharmaceutical companies strenuously opposed it, claiming to be protecting intellectual property rights. The Act has been in limbo, due to the PMA's court challenge, which is now due to be heard in March in the Pretoria High Court.

COSATU will be organising a picket of the court and appeals to all shop stewards to mobilise support for this. Their conduct is tantamount to profiteering at the expense of the health of the majority of South Africans who currently face prohibitively expensive drugs.

COSATU reaffirms its support to the Act, particularly its objective to ensure cheaper drugs. The drug companies' patents cannot be allowed to hold the health of our nation to ransom. COSATU therefore calls for the acceleration of the court case and calls on the democratic forces to mobilise against this contemptuous action by the pharmaceutical companies.