PHA-Exchange> Health for all now, demand marchers in Spoth Africa

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Bridget Lloyd <bridget at hst.org.za>

This was in the Sunday papers. Also something in the Cape Times on Monday
and TV coverage.

*Health for all now, demand marchers *

By Clayton Barnes

Community organisations, trade unions and religious groups on Saturday
banded together to try to force the government to improve the poor state of
South Africa's health system.

Sporting placards reading "SA Health Crisis is bigger than Manto vs
Routledge", "Public Health before Private Wealth" and "Health for all NOW",
hundreds of people marched through Site C, Khayelitsha, to mark the launch
of the People's Health Movement's Right to Health Campaign.

The posters referred to the rows involving Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, the
former deputy health minister, who was axed by President Thabo Mbeki after
an abortive trip to Spain in August, and Health Minister Manto
Tshabalala-Msimang, accused in media reports of drinking immoderately and of
being convicted for stealing a patient's watch while she was superintendent
at a Botswana hospital.

The People's Health Movement, consisting of local organisations including
the Treatment Action Campaign, The Girl Child Organisation, Cosatu, the
South African Democratic Nurses' Union and community churches, is a global
movement aimed at ensuring that every human's health becomes a political
priority.

The movement is a broad coalition of individuals and organisations
mobilising grassroots support for an international right to health and
proper health care.

Leslie London, head of family health at the University of Cape Town and one
of the movement's organisers, said the movement aimed to change current
approaches to health and development in poorer countries.

"This is not just an organisation, it's a network. The movement is a united
front to fight the government for proper health-care facilities, proper
medication, more staff at health-care facilities and a healthier living
environment."

London said South Africa needed a "strong, local and independent" civil
group to hold the government accountable for their actions.

"There are policies in place, but they are nothing if we don't understand
them and if they are not implemented correctly," he said.
........


(This article was originally published on page 4 of The Cape
Argus<http://www.capeargus.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4024817>on
September 09, 2007)
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