State urged to settle in court case
But letters to this effect sent by the TAC to acting health minister Jeff Radebe and deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Nguka have gone unanswered. Instead separate notices have been filed in court on behalf of the State supporting the late filing of a 2000-page answering affidavit by Rath. This move by Rath is almost two years late.
In her letter to Mlambo-Nguka, TAC General Secretary Sipho Mthathi said the health department risked deeply embarrassing media coverage should the case proceed, ‘but more importantly the Medicines Act (the legislation at the centre of the case) will be undermined’.
Mthathi said this type of engagement was likely to harm, rather than strengthen, the partnership being forged between government and civil society and particularly the process of building trust between both parties.
The TAC and the South African Medical Association (SAMA) have asked the court to interdict Rath and several of his associates from distributing unregistered medicines, conducting an unauthorized clinical trial and making false claims about multivitamins in advertisements.
Rath has claimed that his vitamins alone can reverse the course of Aids.
TAC spokesperson Nathan Geffen explained that the TAC was pursuing this interdict because it believed Rath and his associates ran a clinical trial in Khayelitsha using unregistered multivitamins, which included a Schedule 2 substance, N-acetylcysteine. Drugs containing schedule 2 substances may only be dispensed by pharmacists and need to be registered with the Medicines Control Council after undergoing registered scientific trials.
Geffen said Rath and his agents also prescribed multivitamins as a treatment for Aids in their ‘health’ facilities in various parts of the country, but especially in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Kwazulu-Natal.
TAC and news reports have documented several alleged deaths that occurred on Rath’s trials.
TAC treatment co-ordinator and Nyanga resident Ntombozuko Khwaza claimed yesterday that she had been approached by two African National Congress Women’s League members in 2005. ‘I was very sick at the time and at home. They told me to leave the anti-retrovirals and rather use the Rath vitamins,’ she said.
TAC Western Cape organizer Fredalene Booysen said Rath’s activities had caused widespread damage and heartache in the province.
‘There was a lot of confusion among people on treatment and those wanting to start treatment. Many stopped their treatment. They died. Others died while trying to decide whether they should take anti-retrovirals,’ said Booysen.
She said that Rath agents had approached poor people offering them money to take his multi-vitamins. ‘We had to start all over to get people treatment literate,’ she added.
Geffen said they were hoping to set a precedent in trying to deal with other Aids charlatans such as Kwazulu-Natal truck driver Zeblon Gwala, who sells a concoction called Ubhejane; Dutch nurse Tine van der Maas, who promotes garlic, olive oil and lemon and a concoction called African Solution; and Stephen Leivers, who promotes an untested product called Secomet.
SAMA spokesperson Mark Sonderup said he had to question whether the State would be as tolerant to charlatans who targeted poor people with diseases such as Extremely Drug Resistant tuberculosis or bird flu.
Tomorrow’s court case is likely to be postponed as both Rath and the State have failed to file their heads of argument on the substance of the case.
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