Remarkable victories, while TAC soldiers on
It has successfully used the constitution to force government to act
THE Treatment Action Campaign’s (TAC) national chairperson Nkhensani Mavasa spoke at the opening of its 6th national congress last week. This is an edited version of her speech. We have come a long way since the TAC was founded on the steps of St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town in 1998. We have had many victories. In 2002, we used the constitution to force the government to provide prevention of mother-tochild transmission treatment to pregnant women living with HIV.
In the years that followed, we kept up the pressure for a treatment programme for all people with HIV who need treatment.
Under the leadership of Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, South Africa’s ARV programme has become the largest ARV programme in the world. Together, we won the battle for Aids treatment. We helped save thousands upon thousands of lives.
We are still winning important victories in the courts – from our intervention in the case of Dudley Lee, who contracted TB in prison, to our intervention in the large silicosis and TB class action case last year. And most recently, the case of the Bophelo House 94, who stayed determined until their unjust convictions were overturned, and who in the process affirmed the right of all people in this country to protest.
There are many heroes in the TAC, but few more courageous than the brave and determined Bophelo House 94. Let’s pause for a moment to applaud them.
We also had many victories outside the court room. Through our sustained and committed activism we have in recent years unseated under-performing health MECs. This is hard work, but holding those in power to account is now needed more than ever given the crisis in our healthcare system. And we must continue this work. But perhaps most important are not the court victories or the holding to account health MECs, but the clinic-level victories that are won on a day -to-day basis by our branches. These victories do not make the front pages, but they directly change the lives of our members and the people in our communities.
To all our branches and the leadership: you are the beating heart of the TAC. There is still a long and difficult road ahead. Three crises we have to overcome on this road are: gender discrimination, poverty, and our broken healthcare system.
Firstly, we have a serious gender discrimination crisis throughout our society and our various cultures. It is a crisis of men who hit or rape women, but also of everyday discrimination… a crisis of men who listen when other men speak, but who do not listen when women speak.
This is not just a crisis out there, but also inside the TAC.
And even worse than the discrimination against women is the discrimination against our
lesbian, gay, bisexual,trans, queer, intersex and asexual (LGBTQIA) comrades.
The TAC has and will always stand for the full equality of all people, irrespective of gender or sexuality. Let us make overcoming this crisis central to all our work.
Secondly, we continue to have a crisis of poverty in this country. Many of us are poor. Our friends and families are poor. And when you are poor. You can’t always buy food, you can’t afford transport and you can’t afford private healthcare.
The crisis of poverty and inequality is at the root of so many of the problems in our country – be it healthcare, education, housing, or sanitation.
Poverty is also the reason why we must insist on good governance. We cannot afford the state’s money to be wasted, while the people are suffering. We should never turn a blind eye to corruption – whether it be in the public sector or the private sector, at district, provincial or national level. It is always the poorest of the poor who pay the highest price for corruption and mismanagement.
Thirdly , our clinics are in crisis and with it much of the public healthcare system. Posts are being frozen, provinces are running out of money, the National Health Laboratory Service only has enough money until December.
There is inadequate TB infection control, understaffing and medicine stockouts at our clinics or hospitals. At the TAC branches, we see these things every day. Our branches are on the front-lines – and it is our branches who can help turn things around.
Every branch must hold its local clinic, hospital and school to account. We must serve on the clinic committees, on the hospital boards and on the local and district Aids councils.
We must monitor our clinics, as we did with our recent TB infection control survey.
We must tell the stories of our people who are struggling to access decent healthcare.
We must know our rights and we must know the science and treatment of HIV and TB.
Armed with this knowledge, we must hold those in power to account.
We won the battle for ARVs, but at the moment we are losing the battle for quality healthcare for all in our country.
We want to see an end to all forms of discrimination – be it based on gender, disability, how much money you earn or race.
We all want to see a healthcare system that provides quality healthcare to all who live and work in this country.
We all want to see a public service that is free of corruption and mismanagement.
And we all know the power and the value of the constitution and the importance of using it strategically.