24 August 2007

Dear President Mbeki,

We, the undersigned, are writing to express our deep concern about the unwarranted firing of South African Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge.

Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge championed HIV testing and treatment with anti-retroviral therapies (ARV). She played a key role in beginning to repair the relationship between the Department of Health and HIV clinicians and scientists, as well as civil society organizations working to end the HIV/AIDS crisis in South Africa.

The broad message sent by the firing is that the South African Government wishes to backtrack on the long-overdue systematic effort to provide ARVs to people with HIV/ AIDS, and to once again suppress honest talk about HIV/AIDS. Both you and Heath Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang may have expressed support for the National Strategic Plan, but your failure to act on the key features of the plan demonstrate that public avowals of support are not enough.

As the country with the highest number of people living with HIV in the world, it is past time for South Africa to assume its rightful place as a leader in providing ARV therapy. The people of South Africa deserve access to the same lifesaving therapies that are routinely made available in rich countries, and are increasingly available in developing countries, including many much poorer than South Africa. The National Strategic Plan on HIV and AIDS, which calls or provision of appropriate care for people with HIV, including ARV treatment when clinically necessary, committed the country to meeting this standard. We urge you in the strongest terms to demonstrate with actions your commitment to implementing the plan.

For now, we register our sadness and outrage at what can only be viewed as yet another chapter in the tragic story of the South African government's failure to adopt science-, evidence- and human rights- based approach to respond to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Sincerely,