Zackie Achmat
Encyclopedia
Zackie Achmat is a South African activist, most widely known as founder and chairman of the Treatment Action Campaign
(TAC) and for his work on the behalf of people living with HIV
and AIDS
in South Africa.
" community in Johannesburg
during apartheid, in a Cape Malay Muslim
family. As a young student, he once set a fire in his school to force students to join anti-apartheid protests occurring at the time. Achmat joined the ANC and considered himself a Trotskyist.
A TAC Newsletter dated 28 March 2005 reported that Achmat suffered a heart attack
four days earlier, but that he was recovering well and would take time off before returning to his work. He has since resumed his work as an activist.
TAC is unique among AIDS activist groups for combining some of the tactics and political networks of the sort of AIDS activism that started in US and European gay communities in the 1980s (such as ACT-UP
) with the tactics and political networks of South African trade union and anti-apartheid movements.
, and has been a supporter of the party since his days as an anti-apartheid organizer. However, he has vigorously opposed the non-mainstream medical views promoted by former President Thabo Mbeki
and other senior ANC members. In 2006, Achmat called on fellow party members to formulate appropriate HIV policies and oust Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang
.
Between 1985 and 1990 Achmat was a member of the Trotskyist grouping, the Marxist Workers Tendency of the ANC
, the South African section of the Committee for a Workers' International
. He was the first member of the tendency to be recruited inside South Africa and played a leading role in establishing its underground structures in the country during the last years of apartheid.
s and lesbian
s in the new South African Constitution, and prosecuted cases that led to the decrimilization of sodomy
and granting of equal status to same-sex partners in the immigration process. Before starting the TAC, he was a director of the AIDS Law Project based out of the University of the Witwatersrand
, which is now headed by Zackie's longtime collaborator Mark Heywood. The AIDS Law Project and TAC work closely together in all the legal matters that arise in the course of advocating for the right to health, including prosecuting cases and defending TAC volunteers. On 16 June 2008, he jointly founded the Social Justice Coalition
, an organisation with the aim of promoting the rights enshrined in South Africa's Constitution, particularly amongst poor and unemployed people living in the country. He currently serves as the Director of the Centre For Law & Social Justice, a political, economic and legal research centre based in Cape Town.
to be charged with culpable homicide for the death of an HIV-positive inmate at Westville Prison in Durban. The protestors were charged with trespass and ordered to appear before court. The inmate was one of 15 prisoners who were plaintiffs in a case against the departments of health and correctional services, suing to be provided access to anti-retroviral medicines. The court ordered the government to provide the medicines immediately, but the government has since appealed the decision and the interim order.
Leadership Award in 2001, the Jonathan Mann
Award for Global Health and Human Rights in 2003, and the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights in 2003. In 2001, he was awarded the Homo Homini Award
for human rights activism by the Czech group People in Need
. He was elected an Ashoka Fellow
in 2003, and he was named one of TIMEeurope's "Heroes of 2003". In 2004, he was voted 61st in the Top 100 Great South Africans
, as well as being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
by a U.S. Quaker humanitarian group, the American Friends Service Committee
(AFSC).
Treatment Action Campaign
The Treatment Action Campaign is a South African AIDS activist organization which was founded by the HIV-positive activist Zackie Achmat in 1998. TAC is rooted in the experiences, direct action tactics and anti-apartheid background of its founder...
(TAC) and for his work on the behalf of people living with HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
and AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
in South Africa.
Early life
Achmat was born and grew up in the so-called "ColouredColoured
In the South African, Namibian, Zambian, Botswana and Zimbabwean context, the term Coloured refers to an heterogenous ethnic group who possess ancestry from Europe, various Khoisan and Bantu tribes of Southern Africa, West Africa, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaya, India, Mozambique,...
" community in Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
during apartheid, in a Cape Malay Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
family. As a young student, he once set a fire in his school to force students to join anti-apartheid protests occurring at the time. Achmat joined the ANC and considered himself a Trotskyist.
A TAC Newsletter dated 28 March 2005 reported that Achmat suffered a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
four days earlier, but that he was recovering well and would take time off before returning to his work. He has since resumed his work as an activist.
Solidarity with people living with HIV and AIDS
Achmat publicly refused to take AIDS medications until all who needed them had access to them, and held firm in his pledge until August 2003 when a national congress of TAC activists voted to urge him to begin taking his medicines; he finally announced that he would start shortly before the government announced that it would make antiretrovirals available in the public sector.TAC is unique among AIDS activist groups for combining some of the tactics and political networks of the sort of AIDS activism that started in US and European gay communities in the 1980s (such as ACT-UP
AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power
AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power is an international direct action advocacy group working to impact the lives of people with AIDS and the AIDS pandemic to bring about legislation, medical research and treatment and policies to ultimately bring an end to the disease by mitigating loss of health and...
) with the tactics and political networks of South African trade union and anti-apartheid movements.
ANC
Achmat is a member of the African National CongressAfrican National Congress
The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
, and has been a supporter of the party since his days as an anti-apartheid organizer. However, he has vigorously opposed the non-mainstream medical views promoted by former President Thabo Mbeki
Thabo Mbeki
Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki is a South African politician who served two terms as the second post-apartheid President of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008. He is also the brother of Moeletsi Mbeki...
and other senior ANC members. In 2006, Achmat called on fellow party members to formulate appropriate HIV policies and oust Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang
Manto Tshabalala-Msimang
Dr. Mantombazana 'Manto' Edmie Tshabalala-Msimang was a South African politician. She was Deputy Minister of Justice from 1996 to 1999 and controversially served as Minister of Health from 1999 to 2008 under President Thabo Mbeki...
.
Between 1985 and 1990 Achmat was a member of the Trotskyist grouping, the Marxist Workers Tendency of the ANC
Marxist Workers Tendency of the ANC
The Marxist Workers Tendency of the ANC or MWT was a Trotskyist group within the African National Congress which was eventually expelled from the party.-History:...
, the South African section of the Committee for a Workers' International
Committee for a Workers' International
The Committee for a Workers' International is an international association of Trotskyist parties. Members include the Socialist Party of England and Wales, the Socialist Party , the Socialist Party the Democratic Socialist Movement in South Africa and Nigeria and groups using the name Socialist...
. He was the first member of the tendency to be recruited inside South Africa and played a leading role in establishing its underground structures in the country during the last years of apartheid.
Other work
He founded the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality, and as its director in the early 1990s he ensured protections for gayGay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
s and lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
s in the new South African Constitution, and prosecuted cases that led to the decrimilization of sodomy
Sodomy
Sodomy is an anal or other copulation-like act, especially between male persons or between a man and animal, and one who practices sodomy is a "sodomite"...
and granting of equal status to same-sex partners in the immigration process. Before starting the TAC, he was a director of the AIDS Law Project based out of the University of the Witwatersrand
University of the Witwatersrand
The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg is a South African university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University...
, which is now headed by Zackie's longtime collaborator Mark Heywood. The AIDS Law Project and TAC work closely together in all the legal matters that arise in the course of advocating for the right to health, including prosecuting cases and defending TAC volunteers. On 16 June 2008, he jointly founded the Social Justice Coalition
Social Justice Coalition
The Social Justice Coalition is a South African, membership-based, community NGO that focuses on campaigning for safety and security for all...
, an organisation with the aim of promoting the rights enshrined in South Africa's Constitution, particularly amongst poor and unemployed people living in the country. He currently serves as the Director of the Centre For Law & Social Justice, a political, economic and legal research centre based in Cape Town.
Westville Prison incident
On 18 August 2006, Achmat was one of 44 TAC activists arrested for occupying provincial government offices in Cape Town as a protest in order to call for Minister Tshabalala-Msimang and Correctional Services Minister Ngconde BalfourNgconde Balfour
Ngconde Balfour is a South African politician and has been Minister of Correctional Services since 2004.Balfour was born in the Eastern Cape and completed his schooling at Jabavu High School in the town of Alice. He went on to study at Lovedale College and Fort Hare University...
to be charged with culpable homicide for the death of an HIV-positive inmate at Westville Prison in Durban. The protestors were charged with trespass and ordered to appear before court. The inmate was one of 15 prisoners who were plaintiffs in a case against the departments of health and correctional services, suing to be provided access to anti-retroviral medicines. The court ordered the government to provide the medicines immediately, but the government has since appealed the decision and the interim order.
Awards
Achmat won the inaugural Desmond TutuDesmond Tutu
Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African activist and retired Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid...
Leadership Award in 2001, the Jonathan Mann
Jonathan Mann
Jonathan Mann was a former head of the World Health Organization's global AIDS program.Mann was medically qualified, receiving his B.A. from Harvard College, his M.D. from Washington University in St. Louis , and the degree of M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health in 1980.Mann was a key...
Award for Global Health and Human Rights in 2003, and the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights in 2003. In 2001, he was awarded the Homo Homini Award
Homo Homini Award
The Homo Homini Award is given annually by the Czech human rights organization People in Need to "an individual in recognition of a dedication to the promotion of human rights, democracy and non-violent solutions to political conflicts"...
for human rights activism by the Czech group People in Need
People In Need (Czech Republic)
People in Need is a Czech nonprofit, non-governmental organization that implements humanitarian relief and long term development projects in crisis regions all over the world, while working to defend human rights and democratic freedom....
. He was elected an Ashoka Fellow
Ashoka: Innovators for the Public
Ashoka: Innovators for the Public is a nonprofit organization based in Arlington, VA, supporting the field of social entrepreneurship. Ashoka was founded by Bill Drayton in 1981 to identify and support leading social entrepreneurs through a Social Venture Capital approach with the goal of...
in 2003, and he was named one of TIMEeurope's "Heroes of 2003". In 2004, he was voted 61st in the Top 100 Great South Africans
SABC3's Great South Africans
Great South Africans was a South African television series that aired on SABC3 and hosted by Noeleen Maholwana Sangqu and Denis Beckett. In September 2004, thousands of South Africans took part in an informal nationwide poll to determine the "100 Greatest South Africans" of all time...
, as well as being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
by a U.S. Quaker humanitarian group, the American Friends Service Committee
American Friends Service Committee
The American Friends Service Committee is a Religious Society of Friends affiliated organization which works for peace and social justice in the United States and around the world...
(AFSC).
Wedding
Achmat married longtime partner and fellow activist, Dalli Weyers, on 5 January 2008 at a ceremony held in Lakeside, Cape Town.External links
- Writing Rights Blog The blog of the Centre for Law and Social Justice, founded by Zackie Achmat and Gavin Silber in 2009.
- Samantha Power New Yorker article A profile of Achmat, included in a PBS website.
- Photo of Achmat with Nelson Mandela in a visit to a Médecins Sans FrontièresMédecins Sans Frontières' , or Doctors Without Borders, is a secular humanitarian-aid non-governmental organization best known for its projects in war-torn regions and developing countries facing endemic diseases. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland...
clinic in KhayelitshaKhayelitshaKhayelitsha is a partially informal township in Western Cape, South Africa, located on the Cape Flats in the City of Cape Town. The name is Xhosa for New Home...
, with Mandela and Achmat both wearing TAC's trademark "HIV Positive" t-shirt. - news article on 2006 arrest
