Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T18:54:59.933Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Institutions, power and para-state alliances: a critical reassessment of HIV/AIDS politics in South Africa, 1999–2008*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 November 2013

Theodore Powers
Theodore Powers*
Affiliation:
University of Pretoria, Human Economy Programme, Private Bag x20, Hatfield 0028, Pretoria, Republic of South Africa
*
Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

From 1999 to 2008, delays in the adoption of a comprehensive treatment and prevention programme shortened the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa. While the slow implementation of antiretroviral therapy has been attributed to a lack of institutional capacity, dissident views on HIV/AIDS and the effects of fiscal austerity, it was also an expression of power. This article analyses how the South African HIV/AIDS movement overcame this exercise of power by the AIDS dissident faction of the African National Congress (ANC) by building an alliance with the South African labour movement and moderate elements within the ruling party. The ANC's dissident faction responded to this by developing para-state partnerships with non-state organisations to support the AIDS dissident agenda. This study highlights the need to expand the para-state concept to take into account a wider range of social formations and the historically particular conditions under which they emerge.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 51 , Issue 4 , November 2013 , pp. 605 - 626
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The author wishes to acknowledge Keith Hart, David Harvey, Nicoli Nattrass, Donald Robotham and Ida Susser for their feedback on earlier drafts of this article. As per the usual disclaimer, any errors or shortcomings in the analysis are the author's alone.

References

REFERENCES

Annas, G. 2003. ‘The right to health and the nevirapine case in South Africa’, New England Journal of Medicine 348, 8: 750–4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boehringer, Ingelheim. 2008. <http://www.boehringer-ingelheim.com/news/news_releases/press_releases/2008/25_june_2008.html>, accessed 1.8.2012.,+accessed+1.8.2012.>Google Scholar
Butler, A. 2005. ‘South Africa's HIV/AIDS Policy, 1994–2004: how can it be explained?’, African Affairs 104: 591–614.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chigwedere, P., Seage, G. III, Gruskin, S., Lee, T., & Essex, M.. 2008. ‘Estimating the lost benefits of antiretroviral drug use in South Africa’, Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome 49: 410–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Comaroff, J. 2007. ‘Beyond bare life: AIDS, (bio)politics, and the neoliberal order’, Public Culture 19, 1: 197–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Congress of South African Trade Unions. 2003.<http://www.cosatu.org.za/show.php?ID=976>, accessed 20.6.2012.,+accessed+20.6.2012.>Google Scholar
Cullinan, K. 2005. <http://www.healthe.org.za/news/article.php?uid=20031252>, accessed 25.6.2012.,+accessed+25.6.2012.>Google Scholar
Cullinan, K. & Thom, A.. 2005. <http://mg.co.za/print/2005-10-28-official-nod-for-voodoo-trials>, accessed 25.6.2012.,+accessed+25.6.2012.>Google Scholar
Fassin, D. 2007. When Bodies Remember: Experiences and Politics of AIDS in South Africa. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fourie, P. 2006. The Political Management of HIV/AIDS in South Africa: one burden too many? New York, NY: Palgrave-MacMillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, S. & Mottiar, S.. 2005. ‘Rewarding engagement: the treatment action campaign and the politics of HIV/AIDS’, Politics and Society 33, 4: 511–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geffen, N. 2010. Debunking Delusions: the inside story of the Treatment Action Campaign. Johannesburg: Jacana.Google Scholar
Gevisser, M. 2007. Thabo Mbeki: the dream deferred. Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball.Google Scholar
Gill, L. 2009. The parastate in Colombia: political violence and the restructuring of Barrancabermeja. Anthropologica 51: 313–25.Google Scholar
Gray, A. & Jack, C.. 2008. ‘Health hegislation and policy,’ in Barron, P. & Roma-Reardon, J., eds. South African Health Review. Durban: Health Systems Trust, 31–50.Google Scholar
Guay, L., Musoke, P. & Fleming, T.. 1999. ‘Intrapartum and neonatal single-dose nevirapine compared with zidovudine for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV-1 in Kampala, Uganda: HIVNET 012 randomised trial’, Lancet 354, 9181: 795–802.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heller, P. 2003. ‘Reclaiming democratic spaces: civics and politics in posttransition Johannesburg,’ in Tomlinson, R., Beauregard, R., Bremner, L. & Mangcu, X., eds. Emerging Johannesburg: perspectives on the postapartheid city. New York, NY: Routledge, 155–84.Google Scholar
Heywood, M. & Cornell, M.. 1998. ‘Human rights and AIDS in South Africa: from right margin to left margin,’ Health and Human Rights 2, 4: 61–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Iliffe, J. 2006. The African AIDS Epidemic. A History. Oxford: James Currey.Google Scholar
IRIN. 2004. <http://www.irinnews.org/Report/49376/SOUTH-AFRICA-Slow-start-of-ARV-rollout>, accessed 21.8.2012,+accessed+21.8.2012>Google Scholar
Jones, P. 2005. ‘A test of governance: rights-based struggles and the politics of HIV/AIDS policy in South Africa’, Political Geography 24: 419–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kenyon, C. 2006. ‘The origins, evolution and outsourcing of HIV denialism’, Southern African Journal of HIV Medicine 7, 4: 15–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kingston, P. & Spears, I.. 2004. ‘States-within-states: historical and theoretical perspectives’, in Kingston, P. and Spears, I., eds. States-Within-States: incipient political entities in the post-Cold War era. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liotta, P. 1998. Balkan fragmentation and the rise of the parastate. Mediterranean Quarterly 9, 3: 61–81.Google Scholar
Mail & Guardian. 2007. <http://mg.co.za/article/2007-08-24-madlala-routledge-forced-to-pay-for-spain-trip>, accessed 21.8.2012.,+accessed+21.8.2012.>Google Scholar
Makino, K. 2009. ‘Institutional conditions for social movements to engage in formal politics: the case of AIDS activism in post-apartheid South Africa’, in Shigetomi, S. & Makino, K., eds. Protest and Social Movements in the Developing World. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 110–33.Google Scholar
Marais, H. 2005. Buckling: The Impact of AIDS in South Africa. Pretoria: Centre for the Study of AIDS and the University of Pretoria.Google Scholar
Marks, S. 2002. ‘An epidemic waiting to happen? The spread of HIV/AIDS in South Africa in social and historical perspective,’ African Studies 61, 1: 13–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mbali, M. 2002. ‘Mbeki's Denialism and the Ghosts of Apartheid and Colonialism for Post-Apartheid Policy Making’, ms.Google Scholar
Mbembe, A. 2002. On the Postcolony. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Ministry of Health. 2005. <http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/2005/05032915151006.htm>, accessed 21.8.2012.,+accessed+21.8.2012.>Google Scholar
Musoke, P. 2004. ‘Recent Advances in Prevention of Mother to Child (PMTCT) of HIV’, African Health Sciences 4, 3: 144–5.Google ScholarPubMed
Nattrass, N. 2004. The Moral Economy of AIDS in South Africa. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Nattrass, N. 2007. Mortal Combat: AIDS Denialism and the Struggle for Antiretrovirals in South Africa. Scottsville: UKZN Press.Google Scholar
Nattrass, N. 2008. ‘AIDS and the scientific governance of medicine in post-apartheid South Africa’, African Affairs 107, 427: 157–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nattrass, N. 2012. The AIDS Conspiracy: science fights back. Johannesburg: University of Witwatersrand Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oxford English Dictionary. 2005. <http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/137251?>, accessed 20.5.2013.,+accessed+20.5.2013.>Google Scholar
Papadakis, G. 2006. Civil Society, Participatory Governance and Decent Work: the case of South Africa. Geneva: International Labour Organisation.Google Scholar
PlusNews. 2004. <http://www.plusnews.org/Report/36822/SOUTHAFRICA-Chronology-of-HIV-AIDS-treatment-plan-August-2003-to-April-2004>, accessed 21.8.2012.,+accessed+21.8.2012.>Google Scholar
Powers, T. 2012. Institutionalizing dissent: HIV/AIDS, the post-apartheid state, and the limits of transnational governance in South Africa. Journal of Southern African Studies 38, 3: 531–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ranchod, K. 2007. ‘State-Civil Society Relations in South Africa: Some Lessons from Engagement’, Policy: Issues & Actors 20, 7: 1–23.Google Scholar
Robins, S. 2004. ‘‘Long Live Zackie, Long Live’: AIDS, activism, science and citizenship after apartheid’, Journal of Southern African Studies 30, 3: 651–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robins, S. 2006. ‘‘From Rights to ‘Ritual’: AIDS activism and treatment testimonies in South Africa’, American Anthropologist 108, 2: 312–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, H. 2002. ‘On the fault-line: the politics of AIDS policy in contemporary South Africa’, African Studies 61, 1: 145–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seekings, J. 1996. ‘The decline of South Africa's civic organizations’, 1990–1996. Critical Sociology 22, 3: 135–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seekings, J. 1997. SANCO: Strategic Dilemmas in a Democratic South Africa. Transformation 34: 1–30.Google Scholar
South African National AIDS Council (SANAC). 2010. <http://www.sanac.org.za/index.php/about-sanac/history>, accessed 6.6.2012.,+accessed+6.6.2012.>Google Scholar
Steinberg, J. 2008. Sizwe's Test: a young man's journey through the AIDS epidemic. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Strode, A. & Grant, K.. 2004. Understanding the Institutional Dynamics of South Africa's Response to the HIV/Aids Epidemic. Pretoria: Institute for Democracy in South Africa.Google Scholar
Susser, I. 2009. AIDS, Sex and Culture: global politics and survival in Southern Africa. New York, NY: Wiley-Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thom, A. 2002. <http://www.health-e.org.za/news/article.php?uid=20020417>, accessed 21.8.2012.,+accessed+21.8.2012.>Google Scholar
Treatment Action Campaign. 2003. <http://www.tac.org.za/Documents/CivilDisobedience/briefingdocument.Htm>, accessed 19.6.2012.,+accessed+19.6.2012.>Google Scholar
Treatment Action Campaign. 2005. <http://www.tac.org.za/community/jcsmf>, accessed 22.6.2012.,+accessed+22.6.2012.>Google Scholar
Treatment Action Campaign. 2008. <http://www.tac.org.za/community/node/2024>, accessed 25.6.2012.,+accessed+25.6.2012.>Google Scholar
Tull, D. 2005. The Reconfiguration of Political Order in Africa: a case study of North Kivu (DR Congo). Hamburg: Institute for African Affairs.Google Scholar
Wouters, E., van Rensberg, H. & Meulemans, H.. 2010. ‘The National Strategic Plan of South Africa: what are the prospects of success after the repeated failure of previous AIDS policy?’, Health Policy and Planning 25: 171–85.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Youde, J. 2004. ‘South Africa, AIDS and International Regimes: Understanding the Power of History and Identity’, ms.Google Scholar
Youde, J. 2007. AIDS, South Africa, and the Politics of Knowledge. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing.Google Scholar
Zuern, E. 2002. ‘Fighting for democracy: popular organizations and post-apartheid government in South Africa’, African Studies Review 45, 1: 77–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zuern, E. 2006. ‘Elusive boundaries: SANCO, the ANC and the post-apartheid South African State,’ in Ballard, R., Habib, A. & Valodia, I., eds. Voices of Protest: Social Movements in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Scottsville, UKZN Press, 179–203.Google Scholar