From poverty to power - Oxfam-Québec

FROM POVERTY TO POWERHOW CHANGE HAPPENS CASE STUDY:SOUTH AFRICA’S TREATMENT ACTION CAMPAIGN (TAC)CASE STUDYWhen nearly three dozen international pharmaceutical corporationssued in 2001 to overturn a South African law allowing theimportation of cheaper generic medicines, an upsurge ofactivism gave them such a public battering that they were forcedto drop the case. At the heart of the protests was the TreatmentAction Campaign (TAC), an organisation of HIV-positive people inSouth Africa, a country with one of the highest prevalence ratesin the world. Close to 20 per cent of its population carry the virus.Formed on International AIDS Day in 1998, TAC’s 15,000 membersare a fair cross-section of South Africa’s people: 80 per cent ofthem are unemployed, 70 per cent are women, 70 per cent are inthe 14–24 age group, and 90 per cent are black. But TAC’s cloutis far greater than its numbers or demographics suggest.After it had forced the companies to climb down and then drasticallycut the prices of antiretroviral (ARV) medicines, TAC took on theANC government. Despite the court victory, some in the government,in particular the President, Thabo Mbeki, continued toquestion the link between HIV and AIDS. Confusing politicalstatements, combined with slow delivery on the ground, underminedwhat appeared to be good plans to distribute ARVs topublic health clinics.While post-apartheid democracy made violent repression unlikely,TAC’s campaign to change government policy was still long anddifficult. TAC used legal challenges regularly and to great effect,winning a series of court victories on access to treatment basedon the 1994 Constitution, which enshrined the human right tohealth care. Official participatory structures of the postapartheidorder, such as district health committees, offeredTAC opportunities to build public support.However, South Africa’s majority rule also produced what is ineffect a one-party state, in which criticism of the ANC is easilyportrayed as an attack on democracy. Whatever their privateviews, few influential voices were willing to publicly disagreewith government policy. TAC was obliged to go beyond the courtsand use confrontational tactics. Its members broke patent rulesby importing cheaper Brazilian generic medicines in 2002 andheld repeated loud and angry demonstrations.242