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I'm no AIDS martyr, says Zackie Achmat
Nazlia Peer. Cape Times, July 31 2002. Reprinted courtesy of Independent Newspapers (Pty) Ltd.
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AIDS activist Zackie Achmat is determined to continue his life-threatening protest against the government's AIDS drugs policy, in spite of intense pressure to relent and start taking anti-retroviral (ART) drugs.
On Wednesday the South African Medical Association (Sama) followed former president Nelson Mandela in calling on Achmat at his Muizenberg home in Cape Town.
Even though Achmat's HIV status is threatening to deteriorate into full-blown AIDS, he remains steadfast in his refusal to take the drugs until the government agrees to make them available at all public hospitals in the country.
Achmat says he cannot save his own life while thousands of his HIV-positive fellow-citizens and AIDS sufferers, especially the poor, cannot afford them.
Achmat is head of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) pressure group.
"It's very simple. If the government announced an intention to treat people with ART tomorrow, I would reconsider my position immediately," said Achmat, who is still recovering from a serious lung infection.
On Wednesday he was visited at his Muizenberg home by Sama chairperson Kgosi Letlape, the latest in a string of concerned leaders to urge Achmat to reconsider his stance.
At the Sama national council meeting in Boksburg over the weekend it was agreed to honour Achmat with life membership for pricking the consciences of the medical profession on the AIDS pandemic.
Former president Nelson Mandela and Archbishop of Cape Town Njongonkulu Ndungane have also added their voices to those of Achmat's doctors, friends and colleagues in appealing to him to start treatment.
"I am taking their views under consideration very seriously," said Achmat.
"I have absolutely no intention of dying and I don't want to be a martyr," said the tireless campaigner, whose stance has touched the country.
A local radio station fielded calls from listeners admiring Achmat's courage, but hoping he would relent as he was more valuable alive to efforts to deal with the HIV and AIDS crisis.
He said that although he was "enormously personally appreciative" of the widespread support he had received, it should be interpreted as support for everyone in need of treatment.
"In the interim, the government must establish pilot anti-retroviral projects in communities," said Achmat, reinforcing the TAC's battle against the government's no-treatment policy.
"Every life should be treated with equal value," he said, adding that the focus should not be on him, but on what the government had failed to do.
Doctors have advised him not to travel outside Cape Town while he continues to refuse treatment, to avoid the risk of infection. |
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