Activists charge ministers over HIV/AIDS deaths

South African AIDS activists have laid charges of culpable homicide against the ministers of health and trade and industry for failing to prevent an estimated 600 AIDS-related deaths every day.

Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) activists on Thursday marched to police stations in Durban, Cape Town and Sharpeville to lay the charges.

"A docket has been opened against them in Cape Town and investigating officers have been assigned to the case. We told the police to arrest them or we would not disperse," TAC spokesman Nathan Geffen told PlusNews.

The lobby group, embarking on a civil disobedience campaign on the eve of Human Rights Day, is calling for government to immediately announce an antiretroviral (ARV) treatment programme.

"This is a symbolic action. It was 43 years ago in Sharpeville that people entered the police station protesting against an illegitimate government. Today, we are protesting not against the government, but against an illegitimate policy," Geffen said.

The state's HIV/AIDS policy has been marked by controversy over the universal roll-out of anti-AIDS drugs and the country's scientists and activists have frequently found themselves at odds with the government's stance.

"For four years we have done everything in our power to persuade government to change this policy ... Eleven months ago the cabinet tantalised people with AIDS by recognising that antiretroviral drugs do 'improve the condition of people with AIDS', the TAC said in a statement.

While Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has been a regular target for activists, the decision to charge Minister of Trade and Industry Alec Erwin was based on his failure to reduce the prices of ARVs by providing local drug manufacturers with voluntary licences, noted Geffen.

But according to a government statement on the country's HIV/AIDS programme, important developments to support the safe and effective use of ARVs are taking place.

"Government will urgently start investigating the experience of HIV/AIDS treatment in South Africa's health private sector: the costs, the impact, issues of resistance, compliance with drug prescriptions and so on," the statement said.