Why South Africans Protest Our Government’s AIDS Policies

Nathan Geffen is Policy Co-coordinator for the Treatment Action Coaltion.

Editorial Note: Rewire often highlights the important linkages between HIV/AIDS and Reproductive Health. We publish this post today in coordination with TAC's global day of action to pressure the South African government to change its HIV policies. Read below to learn more.

Masizole (* name changed) died of AIDS in August. He was an inmate at Durban's Westville Prison in South Africa and one of over 100 prisoners at this facility who died of AIDS in the last year. Prisoners don't have much respect in South Africa. Public concern about high levels of crime and violence render them the most scorned class in our society.

Nevertheless, Masizole spent his last few months trying to assert his dignity. He was one of 15 prisoners who, together with the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and represented by the AIDS Law Project, applied to the country's court system to compel the Departments of Health and Correctional Services to provide life-saving antiretroviral treatment to prisoners with AIDS. Last month the court ruled in Masizole's favour, but not in time for him. He needed to be on treatment last year already.