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South Africa
Ordered To Provide HIV Care To Prisoners
 28
August 2006-Durban- A South African judge Monday ordered the
government to start providing anti-AIDS medication immediately to sick
prisoners at a Durban prison, throwing out an appeal by the health and
prison ministries against an earlier ruling.
Judge Chris
Nicholson said the government was in contempt of court for ignoring the
previous order.
"If the
Government of the Republic of South Africa has given such an instruction
not to comply with the execution order, 3/8 then we face a grave
constitutional crisis involving a serious threat to the doctrine
The Treatment
Action Campaign (TAC), which brought the application along with 15
prisoners - one of whom has since died - welcomed his ruling.
"It's one of
the most critical judgments we've had," TAC general secretary Sipho
Mthathi told the South African Press Association.
Mark Heywood,
spokesman for the Aids Law Project, said the ruling marked a good day
for prisoners, and a bad day for the government.
"This judgment
has to be one of the most damning judgments of government conduct since
the advent of our new constitutional order in 1994," he said.
The Department
of Correctional Services said it would be able to respond only after
"studying the court decision properly." It has previously argued that it
is doing its best to provide anti-retroviral medicine to prisoners.
There are no
reliable figures on the number of prisoners with HIV. But among the
adult population in general, an estimated 19 percent of people aged 15
to 49, and 30 percent of pregnant women, are infected. An estimated 5.5
million people carry the virus - the highest total in the world.
The Treatment
Action Campaign held a day of action last Thursday in support of
infected prisoners and all the other South Africans who are not
receiving treatment.
The Aids Law
Project made an urgent court application in May to compel the department
to speed up ARV treatment in Durban's Westville prison.
A judge granted
the order in June, and said treatment should be provided to all inmates
at the prison who required treatment. The Department of Correctional
Services appealed that ruling.
Nicholson said
there was "precious little that can be done" to hold the State
accountable for being in contempt of court, according to SAPA. But he
gave the department until September 8 to show that it was complying with
the court order.
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