Emotions ran high and scuffles broke out when supporters of the Treatment Action Campaign clashed with supporters of the Matthias Rath Foundation outside the Cape High Court on Friday.
TAC Western Cape co-ordinator Thmebeka Majali had to be rescued by police after pro-Rath demonstrators - who included members of the Traditional Healers Organisation - wrapped her in a banner and dragged her with them for about 25 metres.
The TAC is seeking a temporary interdict that will stop the Rath foundation and its head, Matthias Rath, from making defamatory statements about the TAC - including suggestions that it is a "front", "Trojan horse" and "running dog" for the interests of the pharmaceutical industry.
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Efforts by TAC national chairman, Zackie Achmat, to address his supporters after Friday's hearing before Justices Siraj Desai, Willem Louw and Essa Moosa, were interrupted when a woman member of the Traditional Healers Organisation surged towards him, prompting a brief scuffle.
| 'There has been a campaign in the court of public opinion' |
Achmat had earlier asked his supporters to "remain calm" when interacting with Traditional Healers Organisation supporters, before leading them in "go, Manto, go" chanting directed at Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
On Friday Achmat told Weekend Argus that the TAC would also seek "serious money" in damages from the Rath foundation for the claims.
On Friday the Traditional Healers Organisation successfully applied to be joined in the legal action and have adopted a strongly pro-Rath position, with more than 100 of its members being bused in to support Rath.
Traditional Healers supporters, dressed in red robes and elaborate bead necklaces, faced off at TAC supporters with banners and posters stating "Viva Dr Rath", "AZT kills" and "Viva Manto" and a placard depicting the TAC as a bloodstained hand.
The TAC decided to take legal action against the foundation after the Advertising Standards Authority ruled in its favour over its complaint against foundation advertisements headed: "Why should South Africans continue to be poisoned with AZT (an anti-retroviral)?"
| 'Why should South Africans continue to be poisoned with AZT?' |
The ads accused the pharmaceutical industry and its "front organisations" (listing the TAC among them) of misleading people to believe "exorbitantly expensive and highly toxic drugs such as AZT and nevirapine" were the answer to Aids.
Among the statements the TAC wants gagged, are that the TAC destabilises democracy in South Africa, forces the government to spend millions of rands on "toxic" drugs and advocates the "poisoning" of South Africans to promote the interests of pharmaceutical companies.
Counsel for the TAC, Geoff Budlender, yesterday argued that the group believed Rath and his supporters were entitled to hold and propagate the view that ARVs were "toxic".
The TAC's legal action was instead focused on statements published in newspaper advertisements and pamphlets, which suggested that the organisation was an "unscrupulous" and deceitful tool of the international pharmaceutical industry, he said.
Such statements were defamatory and undermined the TAC's ability to "carry out its daily public health information work across the country", Budlender said.
"It is dangerous and inflammatory misinformation that places the TAC's staff, volunteers and members at real risk of physical harm, by painting them as people who poison and kill people living with HIV/Aids, on behalf of the drug companies," he concluded.
The foundation has not denied making the allegedly defamatory statements, but claims that they are true and in the public interest.
Rath's advocate, John van der Berg, argued on Friday that his client was being subjected to daily vilification at the hands of the media and asked that Rath be able to submit additional affidavits to deal with the allegedly defamatory claims made against him.
"There has been a campaign in the court of public opinion. This has been entirely one sided and anti-Rath," he said, later rejecting the TAC's claim that Rath's anti-ARV campaign was aimed at promoting sales of his multivitamins.
Van der Berg subsequently withdrew the application in the interests of finalising the case as soon as possible. The hearing has been postponed to May 26.
- This article was originally published on page 6 of Saturday Argus on May 14, 2005
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