The Treatment Action Campaign's Nonkosi Khumalo says the proposed 18-month delay before government begins to provide free anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) in the public health sector is outrageous and too long. Nonkosi added that thousands of people were dying and that in South Africa alone about 5 million people were already infected and desperately in need of ARVs. Thandeka Teyise spoke to Nonkosi about the government's propsed ARV programme.