Mazibuko Jara

TAC and SAMA press conference announcing court action to be taken

This source tape covered the Treatment Action Campaign and the South African Medical Association's press conference. The press conference was held on the day that these two organisations filed papers in the Cape High Court against the Medicines Control Council (MCC) and the national and provincial Departments of Health to address their inaction in enforcing the Medicines Act against Matthias Rath and his Foundation.

Patient Abuse

Patient Abuse follows the events leading up to the formation of the Treatment Action Campaign and their struggles to access affordable quality treatment for all South Africans, by challenging the patent laws protecting the profits of multinational drug companies. Patient Abuse tells of how the Treatment Action Campaign grew from a handful of people on the steps of St Georges Cathedral to an organisation of thousands with support from activists around the globe. In April of 2001 the TAC was victorious when the PMA withdrew it's case.

Law and Freedom

Director: Zackie Achmat

Part 1: Who Was Mrs Komani? relates the dramatic cases that led to the abolition of the death penalty and the decriminalisation of sodomy, a ruling that acknowledged the equality of gay and lesbian people. These judgments stand in contrast to the legal execution, harassment and persecution of apartheid era law. However, even under apartheid, as human rights lawyer Geoff Budlender explains: "Law was a limit on power" and so spaces arose in which people could use the law to contest the abuse of power. One key example explored in the film is that of Mr and Mrs Komani whose 1980 case was a key cause of the collapse of the hated Pass Laws. Who Was Mrs. Komani? brings to light the people who made possible these cases which have dramatically affected the lives of our people and the history of our country.