* Consensus statement of TAC/COSATU National HIV/AIDS Congress: Treat the
People
(The detailed final resolutions agreed to by the Congress will be typed up
and released within two weeks.)
* Statement by African delegates (from outside of South Africa) at the
Congress. The TAC fully endorses this statement and encourages other
organisations to do so as well by emailing zuluwin@zamnet.zm.
* Short description of key points made by speakers at Congress closing
ceremony. Winstone Zulu, from Zambia, who lives with HIV and is a member of
the Presidential AIDS Advisory Panel told the Congress how the views of one
of his heroes, President Thabo Mbeki, resulted in him becoming a denialist.
He stopped taking his antiretroviral medicines for two years. In February
this year he became very sick and began taking his medicines again. He is
now recovering.
*****************
Consensus Statement of National HIV/AIDS Treatment Congress, June 29th 2002
Preamble
Between June 27th and 29th 2002, 750 delegates from all over South Africa
attended the TAC/COSATU National Treatment Congress. Delegates heard
presentations from many of South Africa's leading HIV scientists but also
the day-to-day experiences of the epidemic of nurses, doctors and people
living with HIV/AIDS. Delegates heard of many of the best practices South
Africans are using to combat the epidemic, but there was also a belief that
most people with HIV are not receiving adequate treatment, care and support.
Furthermore HIV is already having a dramatic and negative impact on the
health service.
After two days of deliberations the Congress came to the following
conclusions.
The HIV epidemic has created an emergency in South Africa. This emergency
threatens South Africa's future by creating more poverty and impacting
negatively on our ability to reconstruct and develop the country to the
benefit of all of its people. A national HIV/AIDS Treatment Plan is needed
to combat this emergency. A treatment plan will strengthen the Government's
existing 5-year strategic plan, which concentrates mainly on prevention.
The Congress believes that the following principles must be accepted in
dealing with this emergency:
1.A partnership that recognises the value of every HIV infection prevented,
and the value of every life that is prolonged and improved through access to
treatment.
2.Recognition of the dignity and equality of every person living with
HIV/AIDS as the basis to eliminate stigma and discrimination.
3.Every person has the human right of access to health care.
4.There is a need to boldly take advantage of the best scientific knowledge
about HIV/AIDS, including treatments for HIV. People in the developed world
should not be the only people who benefit from breakthroughs in medical
research.
5.That there is a need for investment in public health service including
eradication of inequities between provinces, districts and communities.
The Congress felt that the HIV crisis and the crisis in the health sector is
being made worse by economic policies, notably GEAR, that have taken
resources away from health and other public sectors. Also delegates
believed strongly that government spending should be driven by the needs of
poor people, and not by those of the armed forces, the World Bank or the
IMF.
Although the Congress aimed to develop a National Treatment Plan for South
Africa it was also recognised that HIV/AIDS is a grave threat to all the
people of Africa. We valued the participation of delegates, including
leaders of people with HIV, from Botswana, Cote d'Ivoire, Zambia, Zimbabwe,
Namibia, Mozambique and Malawi. Delegates resolved to demand that the NEPAD
plan include clear measures for the treatment and prevention of HIV and
programmes for rapid public-sector driven alleviation of poverty. Later in
2002 TAC and COSATU will organise and host a meeting of people from other
African countries to strengthen and unify demands for access to treatment
and the improvement of health services.
The Congress was alarmed by reports it received of the collapse of health
services in many rural areas, particularly Mpumalanga, the Eastern Cape and
Northern Province. Doctors, nurses and people with HIV called for a rural
health services rescue plan - this would necessitate urgent interventions by
the government supported by all the civil society organisations and the
private health sector to rebuild health care in these areas. Strong calls
were made for accountability and dismissal of politicians and civil servants
who are responsible for the collapse of health care services, especially in
Mpumalanga.
Congress called for a new partnership between the national health
department, provincial health departments and civil society organisations.
The objective of this partnership is to save lives. Delegates strongly
welcomed the participation of Dr Nono Simelela, Chief Director HIV/AIDS and
STDs and KwaZulu Natal MEC for Health, Dr Zweli Mkhize. Delegates responded
to the call from Dr Mkhize for a new partnership of community mobilisation
for health by calling for a national day of community action against AIDS on
August 8th 2002 and agreed to commit organisations to this campaign.
In particular Congress supported the continuation of the SANAC, but called
for it to be made more representative, accountable, transparent and dynamic.
Congress also called for SANAC to be given resources and independence from
politicians that is necessary to properly tackle the epidemic.
The Congress broke into commissions which made detailed recommendations for
inclusion in a national treatment plan in the following areas:
1.Piloting antiretroviral treatment and diagnostics in the Public Service
2.Treating sexually transmitted infections and opportunistic infections:
targeting vulnerable groups such as women and children
3.Cutting the costs of medicines and diagnostics - investing in public
health care
4.Doctors, nurses, volunteers: Building capacity and will to treat HIV
5.Improving prevention information, encouraging voluntary counselling and
testing - a special role for young people
6.Social campaigns to support a treatment plan: the Basic Income Grant
campaign, extending access to child welfare grants, workplace policies
7.Youth
In conclusion delegates recommitted themselves to fighting to prevent new
HIV infections, saving lives and improving the dignity and quality of life
of all people in South Africa, the Southern African Development Community
(SADC) and the African Union. The doors of health care services shall be
opened!
Coastlands Conference Centre, Durban, June 29th 2002
******************
Statement by African delegates (from outside of South Africa) at the
Congress
Treat the people living with HIV/Aids, save lives now!!
We as people living with HIV/AIDS, and as activists working to the
betterment of the quality of lives of people living with HIV and AIDS have
been privileged to attend the joint Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and
COSATU congress on Access to treatment in Durban, South Africa taking place
from 27-29 June 2002.
AIDS is managing to undo almost all of the progress that we, as African
countries, have been able to achieve in the time since independence. AIDS is
robbing our countries of its most productive citizens. It is depriving our
children of mothers and fathers; it is decimating the structure of our
societies. Parents are now burying their children. We have the strong
understanding that there will be no African Renaissance without a consistent
full-scale confrontation with the epidemic.
The most effective strategy to the alleviation of misery and suffering this
virus has brought to our beloved countries is to provide access to treatment
for those who are in need. For years now, most of us have been told that
this is not feasible and affordable. People are dying when they could be
kept alive. This is no longer acceptable, and we can no longer stand by and
watch the painful destruction of our collective societies by this virus. Our
different countries are in different stages of development in the battle,
but together, we can learn from each other and support each other in our
various endeavors on access to treatment whilst mindful of the holistic
approach needed to triumph over this disease.
We support the progress made by TAC in such a short period of time.
Furthermore, we have learnt an extraordinary amount from the tenacity
displayed by TAC and their refusal to stand by and watch people die. We
believe that there is nothing to stop us from joining the treatment access
campaign embarked upon by our South African comrades and saving as many
lives as possible in our collective African countries.
We are calling for a partnership promoting increased and urgent access to
treatment in Africa, to share experiences on successful initiatives and to
provoke a turnaround in the fight against the epidemic. This is a fight that
cannot and will not be lost! A gathering will be organized in the near
future to strategize on a continental access to treatment campaign. Treat
the people now, HIV/AIDS spares nobody!
Contact Winstone Zulu (at zuluwin@zamnet.zm) or Tenu Avafia
(tavafia@lac.org.na) for more information on this initiative. Kindly sign
this statement as an expression of solidarity.
***************
SHORT DESCRIPTION OF KEY STATEMENTS MADE BY SPEAKERS AT CLOSING CEREMONY OF
TAC/COSATU NATIONAL HIV/AIDS CONGRESS
President of COSATU, Comrade Willie Madisha stated that NEPAD does not focus
sufficiently on HIV/AIDS. He called on Africa leaders converging on Durban
to create the African Union to deal adequately with the HIV epidemic. He
called upon burial institutions to treat people who had died of HIV/AIDS
and their families with dignity. He warned that history would be unkind to
African leaders if they did not deal adequately with AIDS. He said "an
infection to one is an infection to all" and "we must all work together to
attack the enemy."
Winstone Zulu, an AIDS activist from Zambia and a member of the Presidential
AIDS Advisory Panel, told how he had been encouraged by the views of
President Mbeki, one of his heroes, to wish HIV away. He stopped taking his
antiretrovirals for two years, during which time his CD4 count dropped from
500 to 36. In February this year, he was very ill and began taking
antiretrovirals again. He is now recovering. Winstone also read out a
statement by the African delegates (from outside of South Africa) to the
Congress.
Nthombi Mbuthu and Isaac Skosana described their personal experiences with
living HIV/AIDS. Isaac called upon Parliamentarians with HIV to declare
their status and spread the truth.
Judge Edwin Cameron noted that in June 1994 when cellphones were introduced
to South Africa, there was no infrastructure and no training available to
use and support a complex technological device. Today South Africa has 7
million cell phone users. He referred to the hypocricy of the claim that
"African people can't take drugs because they can't tell the time " [a claim
made by the head of USAID, Andrew Natsios]. He compared the importance of
this conference and the proposal for a treatment plan to the Congress of the
People in Kliptown in 1955 which adopted the Freedom Charter.
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