Government and the AIDS movement are heading for another winter of discontent in South Africa as attempts to forge a national deal on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment fell apart at the weekend.

Despite a march by more than 10,000 people on the opening of parliament to lobby government to sign the deal, President Thabo Mbeki, during a televised interview last Sunday night, poured cold water on the draft agreement, claiming there was none.

The key civil society organisation on AIDS is the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), which has a mass base and lobbies for effective treatment now that the pandemic is in its killing phase in South Africa. It is pushing for a national deal to galvanise society to fight HIV/AIDS, but also to secure a partnership among government, business and labour that will see each bring their ”efforts and resources” to the table.

Before they abruptly stopped negotiations, the parties had made good progress on outlining the key principles and priorities for tackling HIV/AIDS. The priorities were defined as prevention and education programmes, de-stigmatisation and anti-AIDS drug treatment.

The draft plan included a phased introduction of drug treatment for pregnant mothers, rape survivors and eventually, coverage of the entire population.

Research has shown that treatment with anti-retroviral drugs can prolong life, but activists estimate that 3,500 people die every week. ”We remember every child, every mother who has died of AIDS,” said TAC Zackie Achmat at last week’s march.

The TAC quoted a Constitutional Court judgement last year in which judges issued a call to society to act together. The judges had said that, ”The magnitude of the HIV/AIDS challenge facing the country calls for a concerted, co-ordinated and co-operative national effort….”. AIDS activists argue that the framework agreement is such a national effort, which has now been scotched by government.

Opposition has come loud and fast. The Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (COSATU) has criticised government’s stand, while the TAC is planning a civil disobedience campaign and a legal challenge to government if it does not respond by next month. Previous campaigns by the TAC have included the illegal import of generic anti-retrovirals from Brazil and Thailand for distribution to people living with HIV who needed them.

The TAC last year mounted a constitutional court challenge to government forcing it to provide a mother-to-child treatment programme to stem the transmission of HIV. It won the court case, with an order by the judges for government to provide such a programme. Not all of South Africa’s nine provincial administrations has implemented the decision, driving another wedge between civil society and the health authorities.

A comprehensive strategy on HIV/AIDS of government covered all the bases, said official sources and government now believed the framework agreement was superfluous.