No AIDS "state of emergency" needed - Mbeki

President Thabo Mbeki told parliament on Wednesday that there was no need to declare an AIDS "state of emergency". Mbeki said that as far as the government was aware there was no country that had yet declared a national emergency on these grounds.

In terms of Section 37 of the Soth African constitution and the State of Emergency Act of 1997, a state of emergency could be called "only when the life of a nation was threatened by war, invasion, general insurrection, disorder, natural disaster or any other public emergency," Mbeki said. A state of emergency is effective for no more than 21 days from the date of declaration, unless the national assembly resolved to extend the declaration. This could be done for no more than three months at a time.

"The declaration of a state of emergency in terms of the constitution is a drastic measure, which entails the curtailment of the provisions of the Bill of Rights. It has other complex consequences for the country which are undesirable, especially when there are other ways to achieve the same objective, that is, obtaining affordable access to all medicines," said Mbeki.

Mbeki said the issue of declaring a national emergency in the event of an epidemic stemmed from a debate on how to effectively use provisions of the World Trade Organisation's TRIPS accord to facilitate the issuing of compulsory licences for drugs that still enjoyed patent protection.