By Liezl Human

Zackie Achmat, activist and co-founder of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), stressed the need for more openness and activism during the Covid-19 crisis in South Africa. He was speaking during a webinar on Thursday in which he received the 2018 International AIDS Society (IAS) President’s Award.

The award was handed to him, virtually, by outgoing IAS president, Professor Linda-Gail Bekker. The event was hosted by the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation.

Achmat pointed out that much of the response to Covid-19 globally was a consequence of the work done in response to HIV over the past few decades.

He raised several issues for activists to address, including the high cost of the drug remdesivir (which has been found to reduce the length of illness with Covid-19), and the accessibility of a future Covid-19 vaccine.

“What has worried me is that there hasn’t been an openness about people having Covid-19,” said Achmat. He said he knew of activists who have not disclosed their Covid-19 status.

Nompumelelo Mantangana, a nurse in Khayelitsha who was at the forefront of the first antiretroviral treatment programme in the township two decades ago, said that there had been no leadership from civil society in dealing with Covid-19.

“We are thrown in the deep end as health workers; we are in the forefront and we are dying. Civil society has taken a backseat and they are working from home – which is very scary and worrying, because community activism should be led by civil society,” said Mantangana. She stressed the need for the door-to-door campaigns that AIDS activists ran to educate people about the disease. Read more via Ground Up