South Africa could face a "grave constitutional crisis" over the government's attitude to Aids treatment for prisoners, a Durban High Court judge warned on Monday.
Judge Chris Nicholson was dismissing an appeal by the department of correctional services against an order to immediately provide antiretroviral (ARV) treatment at Westville prison in Durban.
He said the respondents - who include the government - were in contempt of the June 22 court ruling, which obliged them to file an affidavit explaining how they were going to implement the treatment.
"If the government of the republic of South Africa has given such an instruction - not to comply with the execution order - then we face a grave constitutional crisis involving a serious threat to the doctrine of the separation of powers," he said in a 21-page judgment.
Continues Below ↓
"Should that continue, the members of the judiciary will have to consider whether their oath of office requires them to continue on the bench."
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), which brought the application 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 said in Cape Town.
The department of correctional services said it would be able to respond only after "studying the court decision properly".
In May, the 15 inmates and TAC, represented by the Aids Law Project, made an urgent application to compel the department to speed up ARV treatment in the prison.
On June 22, Judge Thumba Pillay granted the order, saying it applied not only to the 15 but to all inmates at the prison who required the treatment.
On July 25, Pillay granted the department leave to appeal, but ruled that it had to provide ARVs "with immediate effect" to all needy prisoners at Westville pending the outcome of the appeal.
Continues...
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
