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Witness Statement of Abdurrazack Achmat

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Witness Statement of Abdurrazack Achmat Defendants A[ ] Achmat First [ ] July 2008 "A[ ]A1" – "A[ ]A3" Claim No. HQ07X02333 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION B E T W E E N : MATTHIAS RATH CLAIMANT - and – (1) GUARDIAN NEWS AND MEDIA LIMITED (2) BEN GOLDACRE DEFENDANTS WITNESS STATEMENT OF ABDURRAZACK [ ] ACHMAT I, ABDURRAZACK [ ] ACHMAT, of [], Muizenberg, Cape Town, South Africa, WILL SAY as follows: 1. I am a co-founder and former Chairperson of the Treatment Action Campaign (the "TAC"), which campaigns for the rights and health of people with HIV/AIDS in South Africa. I am commonly known as "Zackie" Achmat. 2. I have worked to protect, promote, enforce and advance human rights for more than 30 years. 3. I hold the degree BA Honours (cum laude) from the University of Western Cape in South Africa. 4. In addition to full-time work as a political activist until the 1990s, I have worked for the Bellville Community Health Project, the AIDS Law Project, Community Health Media Trust, the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality and the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union. 5. Since March 2008, I have become a full-time employee of the Treatment Action Campaign as its Deputy General-Secretary. 6. I was appointed to the World Health Organization’s HIV Strategic and Technical Committee in November 2004 and I am now serving a second-term on that body. I also serve as a member of the Technical Task Team on Treatment, Care and Support of the South African National AIDS Council. 7. As a result of my work with the TAC, I won the inaugural Desmond Tutu Leadership Award in 2002, the Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights in 2003, and together with the TAC, I was nominated by the American Friends Service Committee (better known as the Quakers) for the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. The TAC also won the Nelson Mandela Health and Human Rights Award in 2003. I have been awarded four honorary degrees by South African universities: the University of Cape Town; University of Western Cape, University of KwaZulu-Natal and Rhodes University. 8. I make this statement in support of the Defendants, who published a number of newspaper articles relating to Matthias Rath. 9. The work of the TAC and others that I describe in this affidavit is undertaken on a daily basis by thousands of TAC members, more than 100 staff members and countless supporters. My colleagues and comrades in TAC who over the years have made an enormous contribution to resist the HIV denialism of the government and the quackery of Rath include: Fredalene Booysen, Deena Bosch, Thabo Cele, Lihle Dlamini, Vuyiseka Dubula, Nomfundo Eland, Nathan Geffen, Mark Heywood, Nokhwezi Hoboyi, Bheki Khoza, Nonkosi Khumalo, Victor Lackay, Patricia Maditse, Mandla Majola, Busisiwe Maqungo, Nkhensani Mavasa, Phillip Mokoena, Sipho Mthathi, Portia Ngcaba, Noloyiso Nthamehlo, Akhona Ntsaluba, cati Vawda, Andrew Warlick and countless others. 10. Unless stated otherwise, the facts stated in this witness statement are within my own knowledge and belief. Background 11. In light of the fact that one of the articles that Matthias Rath complains about related to a personal attack on me (by Anthony Brink, an associate and former employee of Matthias Rath), I have been asked by the Defendants' solicitors to explain my personal background in some detail. Childhood 12. I was born on 21 March 1962 in Johannesburg, South Africa, but grew up in a Muslim community in Salt River, Cape Town on the Western Cape of South Africa. At age 13 my father was very briefly a member of the Young Communist League. My mother and aunt who raised me were shop stewards for the Garment Workers Union. In 1950, they assisted in the organization of union protests against apartheid and in defence of Solly Sachs, the general-secretary of the union who was the first person banned in South Africa by the apartheid government. Both remained active in the labour movement until the 1980s. 13. My childhood was difficult for a number of reasons. The 1960s were the height of apartheid, and I was labelled a "coloured" by the ruling regime because of my mixed-race ancestry. Living conditions were not good and my family had very little money. Central to my childhood was a firm belief that all people are equal and as the eldest of six children, I was expected to demonstrate responsibility towards my siblings. My parents were divorced for a number of years and my mother and aunt supported us. 14. Also, by the age of around 10 I became aware of my homosexuality and began to question my family's religious beliefs because these were justified to condemn me. In 1995, I wrote about my childhood in an essay called "My Childhood as an Adult Molester" which I refer to at pages 1 to [ ] of exhibit "A[ ]A1". 15. The importance of this autobiographical essay is the fact that I learnt about gay sex and sexuality from the streets instead from the appropriate sources such as family, school and peers. I was inappropriately sexually active from an age that is too early and I believe that openness in all these matters is the best way to address them. 16. As a public figure I have also learnt that openness is the best way to address what others may find different, offensive, or, may have prejudice about in relation to sexuality, politics, health and one’s own learned prejudices. Activities during apartheid 17. I became an activist when a peaceful mass demonstration of black, African students in Soweto against the imposition of Afrikaans resulted in a series of massacres with more than 700 deaths mainly of school-going children my age. I was fourteen then and learnt the meaning of the word solidarity. From 1976, school boycotts were a popular form of civil disobedience against apartheid. The 1976 student uprising was the first time that the “coloured” community mobilised on a wide-scale to oppose apartheid. Although the "coloured" students joined black students in the boycotts, we were often the first to go back to school, which frustrated me. Therefore, in 1977 after failing to convince other coloured students to continue the boycott, I thought it would be more effective if I just made it impossible for them to attend school. Therefore, I I set my high school on fire. I was sentenced to corporal punishment by the magistrate, who did not believe that I could have acted alone. 18. In the following years I became very active politically and considered myself a socialist, I identified with the demands of the ANC. Between 1977 and 1980 I was imprisoned five times by the apartheid regime. 19. Just after the death of Steve Biko in 1977, I was arrested along with more than 100 fellow high-school anti-apartheid campaigners. The youngest person in our group was twelve years old. I was detained under section 6 of the 1967 Terrorism Act - which allowed someone suspected of involvement in "terrorism" (which was very broadly defined as anything that might "endanger the maintenance of law and order") to be detained for a six month period (renewable) without trial – and held incommunicado. I was detained for around 3 months. The only people who could speak to me were the police and security services and I was assaulted, deprived of sleep by them and harassed because of my religion and sexuality. 20. In 1978, I again was detained without trial, for around 4 weeks, and later that year served 6 months in prison for “incitement” where I was kept in solitary confinement at Pollsmoor Prison. This was a detention facility for people convicted of criminal offences. 21. In 1980 I was again part of a group that organised a class boycott in the townships around Cape Town. We were protesting about the poor education that we, in coloured and black schools, received under apartheid. As a result of this, I was arrested again. I served almost 8 months in what was known as "preventative detention" under the 1950 Internal Security Act. 21 of those arrested, including me, were classified by the authorities as dangerous and were kept apart from all other prisoners. At one point during this detention I and around sixty other detainees staged a hunger strike, which won us beds, books, and radios. It was during this spell in prison that I was recruited to the African National Congress ("ANC") by Johnny Issel and Hennie Ferus. Although I joined the ANC, after I had committed arson in my school, I eschewed the use of terrorism to achieve political aims. I therefore refused to join MK – the “guerrilla army” of the ANC. I am not a pacifist but believe in non-violent political struggle as a matter of principle. 22. When I left prison in 1980 until around 1990 I became involved in the work of the movement for democracy led by the ANC and worked 'underground' and ‘semi- underground’. In 1981, Hennie Ferus was killed in a car crash and together with Cecyl Esau under the direction of Johnny Issel we organised the first openly ANC funeral in the Western Cape for almost two decades. I was involved in the youth, community and labour movements, which led to the creation in 1983 of the anti-apartheid United Democratic Front ("UDF") organisation. For instance, I was also secretary of a number of solidarity committees for striking workers employed including the British multinational companies Wilson Rowntree and Leyland. 23. I worked in rural areas such as Ramthlabama in the former “independent” apartheid homeland Boputhatswana to promote education and anti-apartheid organisation as well as Worcester and Paarl in the Western Cape.
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