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Press releases
On 7 June 2011 Mark Heywood and Mandisa Dlamini (the daughter of Gugu Dlamini) jointly delivered the Nkosi Johnson Memorial lecture at the opening of the 5th South African AIDS Conference. They drew attention to the crisis facing young people in South Africa and the need to link HIV prevention and care to the struggle for the right to a basic education in South Africa. 
With the vitally important UN High Level meeting on AIDS only one week away, the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) has issued an important resolution setting out the country’s position in the negotiations for a renewed commitment to HIV and TB. 
Joint SECTION27/TAC statement Transparent governance, free expression and a free press are essential components of democracy. They are the means by which all people in South Africa, especially the vulnerable and poor, can hold our government to account. Our effectiveness at getting the state to implement HIV treatment and prevention programmes has been dependent on the Constitution being upheld, especially the Bill of Rights. 
On 8–10 June, 2011, key stakeholders from all over the world will gather in New York to review progress of the global response to HIV/AIDS and to plan the way forward. This forum has the potential to reinvigorate the commitment to HIV/AIDS nationally and internationally. In light of this, on 20 May, SECTION27, TAC, Médecins Sans Frontières, the World AIDS Campaign and the AIDS and Rights Alliance of Southern Africa sent a letter to the Director General for Health calling on the South African government to take the lead in setting ambitious and measurable targets, and encouraging similar commitments from other UN member states. 
In the last week there has been much controversy regarding a report on municipal audit outcomes, with particular focus having been placed on allegations in the press that the report was returned to the National Treasury for it to be “repackaged” and not released in the run-up to the local government elections on 18 May 2011. This has been strongly denied by government. Whatever the truth, SECTION27 takes the view that this largely distracting sideshow has masked the real underlying issues. 
SECTION27 made a submission to the Department of Health on 22 April 2011 on the draft National Health Amendment Bill, 2011 (“the draft Bill”). In so doing, it recognised the publication of the draft Bill as the first legislative step towards the establishment of a single, accountable and structurally and operationally independent Office of Health Standards Compliance (“Office”) with jurisdiction over the private sector and the public sector at all spheres of government. Importantly, however, SECTION27′s submission came to the conclusion that the proposed Office, as contemplated by the draft Bill, does not have an adequate level of structural and operational autonomy. SECTION27 is of the view that the proposed mandate of the Office cannot be discharged effectively unless it has an adequate level of structural and operational autonomy. 
SECTION27 is becoming increasingly aware that some medical schemes try to narrow the scope of the benefit options they offer when it comes to processing claims. This may be done, for example, by mischaracterising claims so that they fall outside benefit options, improperly imposing late joiner penalties and waiting periods, or failing to cover prescribed minimum benefits as required by law. Such practices are unlawful and violate the rights of scheme members who are forced to incur out-of-pocket medical expenses in circumstances where they are covered by their benefit options. In some cases, they may also be prevented from accessing necessary health care. Our client, IE, has been HIV positive for 20 years and participated in early trials of antiretroviral (ARV) medicines before the conventional treatment regimens became available. As a result of his exposure to various ARV medicines and regimens over an extended period, IE began to develop fatty growths on his back and neck and was diagnosed with ARV-related lipodystrophy. On the recommendation of his physician, IE applied to Bonitas Medical Fund (Bonitas) for authorisation for the surgical removal of the fatty growths on his body. Bonitas, however, refused to cover the medical procedure on the basis that it considered the procedure to be cosmetic surgery. There was no medical basis for this decision. Bonitas failed to consider all the relevant information before it and mischaracterised the claim as cosmetic in order to avoid its legal obligation to cover IE’s costs. Following SECTION27′s intervention on behalf of IE, the claim was authorised with retrospective effect and IE was reimbursed most of his out-of-pocket expenses. 
Cabinet recently resolved to ask Parliament to take the necessary steps to enable South Africa to ratify a decision taken by the World Trade Organization (WTO) on intellectual property and access to medicines. At its meeting held on 16 March 2011, Cabinet decided to request Parliament to – – ratify the WTO decision on the implementation of paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health; and – deposit “an instrument of ratification … with the WTO.” As organisations that are committed to ensuring universal access to essential medicines, as an integral part of the constitutional right to have access to health care services, TAC and SECTION27 call on Parliament not to ratify the decision. In this press statement we explain why we make this call. 
The 5th meeting of the Budget and Expenditure Monitoring Forum heard that funding for public health care in the Eastern Cape and Gauteng were in crisis and discussed what needs to be done to resolve many of its causes.
SECTION27 hosts groundbreaking Southern African Regional Activist Dialogue on a proposed Framework Convention on the Right to Health (FCGH) 1. Report on Southern African Dialogue 2. Programme 3. Participants list 4. Discussion Document |
 
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Legal advice
Understanding NHI