Case study

AIDS activists in South Africa

The complex HIV and AIDS situation in South Africa has provoked an extraordinary response from citizens and civil society.

High profile figures such as the President and a health minister have held dissident scientific perspectives on the HIV virus and promoted 'indigenous knowledge' and 'local solutions' as part of a cultural nationalist programme. This led people to distrust the scientific establishment. Combined with popular myths, stigma and shame around HIV and AIDS, it had a devastating impact on public health interventions.

Research from the University of Western Cape looks at the Treatment Action Campaign's (TAC) strategies to get access to life-saving drugs for poor people, in a context where scientific authority was distrusted by powerful people and large sections of the public. TAC interacted with scientists, the media, the legal system, non-government organisations and the government. Its main strategy, however, was to mobilise support in schools and poor communities through HIV and AIDS treatment literacy and awareness campaigns. TAC widely publicised their victories over the South African government and multinational pharmaceutical companies.

TAC draws on a rights-based approach asserting the right of citizens to scientific knowledge, treatment information and the latest research findings. In addition to accessing medical treatment, TAC is concerned with creating 'empowered citizens' who understand the connection between biomedicine, the wider social world and the political economy of health. However, there is a lot still to be done. A major challenge now is how to make this widespread so that poor working class citizens are empowered and responsible in their approach to HIV and AIDS, treatment and health care.

Steven Robins
Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Lettere and Wysbegeerde A Building, Private Bag X1, Matieland 7602, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
T +27 21 8082090
F +27 21 808 2143
robins@netactive.co.za

See also

From 'Medical Miracles' to Normal(ised) Medicine: Aids Treatment, Activism and Citizenship in the UK And South Africa, IDS Working Paper 252, by Steven Robins, 2005 (PDF) Link

'AIDS, Science and Citizenship after Apartheid' by Steven Robins, 2005, in Inclusive Citizenship: Meanings and Expressions, Zed Books: London, edited by Naila Kabeer, 2005

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