A luta continua!~1 — South African HIV activism, embodiment and state politics

摘要

In February 2003 the South African HIV activist organisation, Treat-ment Action Campaign (hereafter, TAC), handed over dockets charg-ing two ministers, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, the minister of health,and Alec Erwin, the minister of finance, with culpable homicide. Theiralleged crime was the failure to respond to the HIV/AIDS epidemicin South Africa. In addition, the TAC started a 'civil disobedience cam-paign', a political campaign that has a very strong symbolical meaningin South Africa. Using a tool that was used in the anti-apartheid strug-gle was quite a radical step in the new democracy, with the ANC ingovernment (cf. Friedman and Mottiar 2006). During the civil disobe-dience rallies activists carried posters with photos of the two ministersand a text saying: 'WANTED. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, Alec Erwin,for not stopping 600 HIV/AIDS deaths every day'. The activists' mes-sage was clear: these two are personally responsible for lives lost everyday. At the same time the campaign pointed at the political machinery,addressing the government as a whole as an institution accountable fordeaths in the country.