HIV man defies death and state

Treatment Action Campaign AIDS activists have scored yet another decisive victory against the government, but it is still not enough to persuade their leader to take the life-saving drugs he desperately needs.

Zackie Achmat, 40, is HIV positive, but for the past four years has refused to take the drugs which doctors say will halt the inevitable deterioration of his health.

He says he will not take the medication until the government makes it available to all.

Seven weeks ago Achmat contracted a lung infection. His doctor believes he may now also have tuberculosis. They are still awaiting the test results, but if he does have TB, the disease could destroy what remains of Achmat's immune system, leading to what is commonly referred to as "full-blown AIDS".

On Friday, the TAC won the latest round of its battle when the Constitutional Court denied the government leave to appeal against a High Court order compelling it to provide AIDS drugs at all state hospitals for HIV-positive pregnant women to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the virus.

So would Achmat now relent and allow himself the treatment?

On Saturday, from his bed at home in Muizenberg, Achmat said "no".

Put simply, it is still not enough.

What Achmat and his colleagues at the TAC want is pilot anti-retroviral programmes in all of South Africa's nine provinces at primary health-care level, that is community clinics.

The provision of the drugs to pregnant mothers was not yet good enough, Achmat said.

But he is coming under huge pressure for his brave, principled stand.

He described on Saturday how friends, family members and colleagues were pleading with him to take the drugs - AZT, 3TC and nevirapine - to save his life and continue to lead the fight for drugs for all.

Achmat contracted the HI virus about 12 years ago. In 1998, his doctor said he needed the drugs. It was then that he took his stand.

"It is wrong to purchase life. The right to life should be inviolable and available to everyone. All other rights come from it. But more important, the state has within its means the money to keep people productive, but it doesn't."

Achmat has been honoured for the TAC's work with numerous awards, some of them international, and is due to be a keynote speaker at a forthcoming conference in Barcelona.

Achmat said politics had become "devoid of morality".

It was "scandalous", for example, that the government had been sitting on key pieces of legislation such as that dealing with child care and sexual offences against women and children, yet could rush through legislation pertaining to crossing-the-floor because it benefited politicians.

He saved his last words for a warning to the government: "(Somehow) I intend living longer than (President) Thabo Mbeki. I don't intend losing this fight."