Insults and threats spoil TAC meeting

The gathering for the Treatment Action Campaign's People's Health Manifesto last Wednesday, was partly spoiled by insults and personal threats from some individuals. The event was held at the Giyani Arts Centre.

The TAC had invited the community around Giyani and representatives from political parties. The purpose of the event was for the political parties to answer 11 questions tabled in the People's Health Manifesto, so that the public could make informed decisions when going to the polls on 7 May.

“All things were going well inside the hall,” said TAC's provincial coordinator, Mr Amukelani Maluleke. “But when we walked out, some cadres within the ANC showed political intolerance about the Vote Health Not Corruption statement printed on our T-shirts. They said we were attacking their political party. We are very concerned about this kind of political immaturity.”

Maluleke added that they were not trying to attack or insult any political party with the statement. “That's just our key theme in addressing the health system challenges we are faced with,” he said. “We are engaging the political party concerned to deal with these insults and threats.”

Maluleke said that the primary reason for the People’s Health Manifesto was to take a first step to the foundation of the TAC's advocacy work to hold the government accountable after the elections. “I should say that, as organisation, we are on the right track because we will propose a meeting again with the winning party to remind them of their promises,” he explained. “We will call another general meeting with the other political parties to join hands with us, so as to realise a health system and strengthen it as a civil movement.”

Date:27 March 2014

By: Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

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