From: Anthea Cornelius [125an3co@solon.law.wits.ac.za] Sent: Friday, August 11, 2000 11:54 AM To: ngeffen@cs.uct.ac.za Subject: Winnie Mandela's speech  THE EXTENT OF THE AIDS DISASTER Comrades Let me start by asserting what appears to have become less obvious in South Africa in the law few months. AIDS exists. HIV causes AIDS. Like the spread of global parasitic imperialism AIDS is roaming the world attacking the poor and the marginalised. In our beloved Africa it has already cut a swathe of destruction, swallowing up families, communities and villages. Last year over 2 million Africans died of AIDS related diseases. This year there will be even more deaths. There are already 12,1 million AIDS orphans in Africa. AIDS patients fill 70% of the hospital beds in Burundi. 2000 Zimbabweans die of AIDS every week. In Botswana 35% of the adult population is infected with HIV. One in every 4 people in Lusaka is HIV positive. Zambia lost 1300 schoolteachers to HIV/AIDS in the first 10 months of last year. 25% of the Doctors in Southern Africa will be dead by 2005. In South Africa 4,2 million, 20% of the population, have HIV. There are 1600 new infections every day and over 100 000 people are dying every year. It is predicted that one in every three 15 year olds will contract HIV/AIDS. The majority of these people are poor and black. This is a social holocaust. We cannot proclaim this century the African century and then ignore the AIDS pandemic as some political leaders are up to do. To claim this century the African century is to declare war on AIDS. Comrades let us concede that we have failed to HIV/AIDS seriously. That failure is a betrayal of our struggle for social justice and of our hopes for a better society. We must take responsibility for that failure. We knew that this plague was moving south – we saw what it had done in the north – and yet we did nothing. Instead of following the example of Uganda and taking serious action we wasted time with Sarafina; Virodene and right wing American scientists. Our failure to act has made us the murderers of our own people. But there is room for hope. Countries like Cuba, Uganda and Thailand have made excellent progress in the struggle against HIV/AIDS. Uganda has brought their infection rates down to 8%. They have shown that it can be done. If we could struggle against HIV/AIDS with the same commitment as we struggled against apartheid we could turn back the tide. If we could give the same attention to the struggle against HIV/AIDS as we gave to the bid to host the World Cup we would save millions of lives. THE ROLE OF THE DRUG COMPANIES The war against AIDS begins with the struggle against the drug companies. It is uncontestable that there are medicines that can extend and dramatically improve the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS. The struggle is how to get hold of them. It must be remembered that these medicines were developed by many people working together all over the world. Yet these medicines now belong to drug companies. The drug companies sell their medicines at different prices in different countries. They know that in South Africa there is a rich sector of the population that can afford to pay high prices for medicines. They have set their prices with this sector of the population in mind. Their aim is to make money off the rich white population and to ignore the poor black population. Scientists tell us that Fluconazole is a good example. It is a medicine which is very effective in treating the opportunistic fungal infections, which result in terrible suffering and death for AIDS patients. A daily dose of Fluconazole can restore quality of life, dignity and hope to people with AIDS related illnesses. Fluconazole is made by the drug company Pfizer. They didn’t invent Fluconazole – they bought the patent from Yugoslavia. Pfizer makes over 800 million US Dollars a year from Fluconazole. In South Africa one Fluconazole pill costs R86. So it costs over R20 000 for one person to stay on Fluconazole for one year. Even middle class patients with private medical aid can’t afford this. But it doesn’t have to be like this. In India and Thailand other drug companies have produced Fluconazole for as little as R2,98 a pill. That means that in India and Thailand it costs just over R1 000 for an HIV/AIDS patient to be on Fluconazole for a year. That’s twenty times cheaper than in South Africa. The patent laws in India and Thailand have been designed to meet the needs of the Indian and Thai people rather than the drug companies. We need to do the same in South Africa. The huge pharmaceutical companies and the American government will oppose these moves but our government has an obligation to the people who elected it – not to the rich and powerful. Around the world the market has become god. Governments quiver in fear of the market. But nobody elects the market, the market is not held accountable to the people - its only aim is to make profit. We are living through a new tyranny. The tyranny of the market. The market is made up of a number of hugely wealthy corporations, which control bodies like the World Trade Organisation, the World Bank and the IMF. These bodies in turn influence democratically elected governments to put profit before people. Today we say no and demand that our government puts our people before the market. We need to name the drug companies that oppose lowering the cost of essential medications. The worst offenders are Pfizer, Bristol Meyers Squibb, Hoffman Roche, Abbot and Boehringer Ingelheim. Phansi Pfizer Phansi! Phansi Bristol Meyers Phansi! Phansi Hoffman Phansi! Phansi Roche Phansi! Phansi Abbot Phansi! Phansi Boehringer Ingelheim Phansi! WHAT GOVERNMENT CAN DO There is much that governments can do. When Dr Nkosazana Dhlamini-Zuma was Minister of Health she fought courageously to put people before profits and democracy before the market. However, her efforts were undermined by pressure from the big drug companies and the governments of the United States and the European Union. And the people of South Africa failed to support her in her struggle. We must take responsibility for that failure. Now our government, for which so much blood was shed, has backed down and becomes an obedient servant of the multinationals. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We must now allow this. The struggle must continue. We must empower ourselves with the knowledge to fight a cunning enemy. We must learn about patents, parallel imports and compulsory licensing and put pressure on government to put people before profit. Patents A patent is a legal document giving a company the right to be the sole producer of a product. In the case of medicines the drug companies have the right to be the only producers of essential medicines for 20 years. Because they are the only people that are allowed to produce these medicines they can charge outrageously high prices for these medicines. In the name of the free market the drug companies have been given a total monopoly which they are using to make huge profits. If doesn’t have to be like this. There are other alternatives. Compulsory licensing Compulsory licensing is one alternative. It allows a government to legally manufacture patented goods when it is in the public interest to do so. Countries like France, the USA, Poland and Britain use compulsory licensing to ensure that their people have access to the medicines that they need. In South Africa we have given ourselves the legal right to issue compulsory licenses to expropriate military patents. However we have not given ourselves the right to issue compulsory licenses to expropriate medical patents. Parallel imports Parallel imports are another alternative. This is when a government legally imports a patented product for a country where it is sold at a cheaper price than in the local market. The drug companies are charging grossly inflated prices for their medicines because they know that there are some rich people in South Africa who can afford these prices. The drug companies are clearly abusing their patents and that gives our government the legal right to import medicines from those countries where they are sold at cheaper prices. CONCLUSION In 1956, 20 000 women marched on Pretoria. They changed the history of this country. In 1976, the Soweto uprising put another nail in apartheid’s coffin. Today, we are marching again. It is part of the long walk to freedom. There are a few mountains in our way but we will remove those mountains with our bare hands if need be. We are marching to demand that a government, which we have elected, puts the interests of its people before the profits of the drug companies. People have come from Johannesburg, Cape Town, Harare, Philadelphia, Guatemala City and Mumbai to express their outrage at the tyranny of the market and to demand that people come before profit. We salute this international solidarity. And we promise that if this march doesn’t turn the tide, we will march again and again until our voice is heard! We are good at that! We brought down apartheid the only way we know how! Amandla! Amandla! Amandla!