SOUTH AFRICA: Fresh protests threatened by AIDS activists
JOHANNESBURG, 18 February (PLUSNEWS) - South African AIDS activists, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) have threatened to renew their protests, should the government fail to provide HIV/AIDS drugs as promised, the BBC reported.
The Minister of Health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, said at a recent rally that the provision of drugs could not get under way as the health department was in a "shambles".
The national antiretroviral plan, due to begin by the end of March, aims to provide drugs to about 50,000 people in 2004, rising to as many as 1.4 million HIV-positive people by 2009.
A TAC spokesman, Denis Matwa, said: "If the health minister runs away from the treatment plan, we will not hesitate to go back to the streets. This time we will get much more support, both nationally and internationally."
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