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NEWS
PARLIAMENTARIANS TO RECEIVE ANTI-AIDS DRUGS

Chris McGreal in Johannesburg
Guardian
Tuesday October 10, 2000

South Africa's health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, has admitted that while her government refuses to prescribe anti-Aids drugs to people infected with HIV, members of parliament receive the treatments at public expense.

The opposition has accused President Thabo Mbeki of gross hypocrisy because the government has told doctors that it it is illegal to provide anti-retroviral drugs to rape victims and pregnant women as a preventative measure, but the parliamentary health scheme specifically offers treatment in both cases.

Last week, the health authorities ordered one charity to stop providing AZT and other drugs to rape victims on the grounds that they have not been approved for such use.

The revelations will add to the surge of criticism Mr Mbeki has brought on himself by his Aids policies and his controversial questioning of the bulk of scientific opinion that HIV causes the disease.

The president has been attacked by South Africa's medical establishment, the trade union movement and the Anglican church, which recently called his Aids policy a crime against humanity comparable to apartheid.

The parliamentary medical scheme - which serves 2,000 MPs and judges - includes an option called the "aid for Aids" plan, which provides anti-HIV drugs up to the value of £4,000 for, among others, rape victims and pregnant women. The hope is to prevent mother to child transmission. So far, 68 MPs have signed up for the option.

The South African government has repeatedly justified its refusal to provide similar treatment in public hospitals, on the grounds that there is no evidence that the drug works in those cases, and because of the cost. Although AZT and other anti-Aids drugs are registered in South Africa, they have not been officially approved for use in preventing the transmission of HIV after a rape or by pregnant women.

Mr Mbeki has previously written to the leader of the official opposition, Tony Leon, accusing him of "blatant defiance of the law" for advocating that doctors prescribe anti-retroviral drugs in such cases. The president said that if this were to happen, the government would have to "take the necessary action to stop what would have been illegal behaviour".

Mr Leon said in a statement that while Mr Mbeki "plays with the lives of South Africans" by casting doubt on the causes of Aids, he and his fellow members of government enjoy "Rolls-Royce" Aids treatments.

"This government is clearly willing to take action on Aids only when the crisis has direct implications for its own members," Mr Leon said. "The needs of the rest of the country are averted with appeals to mythical African solutions, while members of government enjoy the best treatments the world has to offer."

Mrs Tshabalala-Msimang has defended the apparent discrepancy in policy by saying that the parliamentary health scheme is a matter for the private sector.

"MPs are members of the medical aid scheme, no different from people who belong to other medical aid schemes," she said. "AZT is available out there in the private sector. In the public sector it is not, because we cannot afford it. That is the truth of the matter." But she was immediately accused of misleading the public, because last week the authorities ordered a charity , the Greater Nelspruit Rape Intervention Project, to stop providing AZT and another drug, 3TC, to rape victims because "it was not in accordance with government policy". The project supplies anti-retroviral drugs to 50 women and children each month.

Its coordinator, Barbara Kenyon, denounced the order. "It's an outrage. If you are rich and sitting in government you can get life-saving medication, but if you are poor and living in rural Mpumalanga, then you are denied it," she said.