Achmat speaking at a protest wearing the TAC's trademark "HIV Positive" T-shirtAchmat protesting in support of freedom of the press and against ANC corruption
Abdurrazack "Zackie"Achmat (born 21 March 1962) is a South Africanactivist andfilm director.[2][3][4] He is a co-founder theTreatment Action Campaign and known worldwide for his activism on behalf of people living withHIV andAIDS in South Africa. He served as board member and co-director ofNdifuna Ukwazi (Dare to Know),[5] an organisation which aims to build and supportsocial justice organisations and leaders, and was the chairperson ofEqual Education.[6][7] In 2024, he stood as independent candidate in the South African National Elections.[8] However, he did not garner enough support to secure a seat in parliament.[9]
He worked as a sex worker as a teenager between 1977 and 1981. Later he would cite the income and opportunity it provided for intimacy and experimentation in exploring hissexuality as reasoning for entering the line of work.[12]
Achmat set fire to his school in Salt River in support of the1976 student protests and was imprisoned several times during his youth for political activities.[13][14] He joined theAfrican National Congress (ANC) in 1980 while serving time in prison.[15] Between 1985 and 1990 he was a member of the Marxist Workers Tendency of the ANC,[3][4] aTrotskyist breakaway group of the ANC and precursor to theDemocratic Socialist Movement.[16]
Achmat stood as an independent for national parliament on the Western Cape regional list in the2024 South African general election.[22] Achmat received 10679 votes, which does not reach the minimum threshold required to gain a seat in theNational Assembly. He conceded defeat and vowed to continue politics by contesting in the2026 local elections.[23]
Achmat wrote a much-cited article about sexuality in South African prisons in 1993, based on his personal experiences withhomosexual prison gangs, notablythe 28s.[24]
Achmat joined the AIDS Law Project based out of theUniversity of the Witwatersrand in 1994, working as a paralegal under directorJustice Edwin Cameron before replacing him as director that same year. He was involved in cases regarding the rights of HIV-diagnosed prisoners and hate crimes against gay and lesbian couples perpetrated by police.[26][27]
Achmat co-founded theTreatment Action Campaign (TAC) in 1998,[18] a grassroots organization advocating for open and easy access to antiretroviral drugs for treating HIV. The AIDS Law Project and TAC work closely together in all the legal matters that arise in the course of advocating for theright to health, including prosecuting cases and defending TAC volunteers.[4]
Solidarity with people living with HIV and AIDS in South Africa
Achmat publicly announced hisHIV-positive status in 1998 and stated that he was refusing to take antiretroviral drugs until all who needed them had access to them.[2][11][13] He began taking antiretrovirals in August 2003 when a national congress of TAC activists voted to urge him to begin antiretroviral treatment. He finally announced that he would start treatment shortly before the government announced that it would make antiretrovirals available in the public sector.[28] Achmat's motives have never been independently established and he does not mention this incident in affidavits that he has submitted on public interest matters containing his life history.[27]
Achmat was one of 44 TAC activists arrested in 2006 for occupying provincial government offices inCape Town as a protest in order to call forHealth MinisterManto Tshabalala-Msimang andCorrectional Services MinisterNgconde Balfour to be charged with culpable homicide for the death of an HIV-positive inmate atWestville Prison inDurban. The protesters were charged with trespassing and ordered to appear before court. The inmate was one of 15 prisoners who were plaintiffs in a case against the Departments of Health and Correctional Services, suing to be provided access to antiretroviral drugs. The court ordered the government to provide the drugs immediately.[18][29]
In 2008, Achmat co-founded theSocial Justice Coalition (SJC), an organisation with the aim of promoting the rights enshrined in South Africa's Constitution, particularly among poor and unemployed people living in the country. In 2009 he co-founded the Centre for Law and Social Justice, subsequently renamed Ndifuna Ukwazi (Dare to Know), with Gavin Silber.[1][30]
In 2013, Achmat and 18 other SJC activists were arrested for an illegal gathering outside theCape Town Civic Centre, where they were protesting about sanitation services in thetownship ofKhayelitsha.[31]
In 2018, Achmat was accused of intimidating women against speaking aboutsexual harassment while he was the chair of the board ofEqual Education, specifically regarding allegations against Doron Isaacs.[32] Achmat has denied the claims,[33] while also publicly defending Isaacs, stating that he does not believe Isaacs is a sexual predator. Achmat denied threatening complainants but admitted that he had "spoken firmly to people who have spread rumours or allegations of sexual or other misconduct without evidence as fact or faith".[34] Achmat has also boasted about being feared by people in South African civil society.[35] In the same radio interview Achmat claimed that he had heard rumours that his interviewer had stolen money and suggested that one of Isaacs' accusers was not credible because she had been gang-raped as a volunteer.[36]
Achmat joined calls for a public inquiry into Equal Education's handling of allegations ofsexual misconduct in the organisation.[37] Equal Education[38] appointed retired judge Kathleen Satchwell to head an inquiry into the allegations. The Satchwell inquiry found that the allegations against Achmat and Isaacs were baseless.[39][40][41][42] Judge Satchwell likened the accusations to the "gutter journalism" of the Apartheid era in which "untested propaganda could rule the roost”.[43]
However, one member of Satchwell's three person inquiry, former United Nations' Special Rapporteur on Violence Against WomenRashida Manjoo, dissented on the basis that she wished to take into considerations the anonymous allegations that were rejected by Satchwell. There was a total of 19 anonymous submissions through theWomen's Legal Centre that were rejected by the commission.[44]
In 2020 Achmat became a director of Karoo Biosciences, which was a company established by Doron Isaacs.[45]
Achmat was diagnosed HIV-positive in 1990.[2][4][46][10] In 2005 he had aheart attack, which his doctor said was unlikely to be caused by his HIV-positive status or treatment. He recovered sufficiently to return to his activism work.[47]
On 5 January 2008, Achmat married his partner and fellow activist Dalli Weyers at a ceremony in the Cape Town suburb of Lakeside. The ceremony was attended by then MayorHelen Zille and presided over by his close friendSupreme Court of Appeal judgeEdwin Cameron.[48][49] The couple divorced amicably in June 2011.[50]
Achmat's critical role in the battle for mass antiretroviral treatment in Africa is portrayed in the award-winning 2013 documentary filmFire in the Blood.[53]
^abcdeMbali, Mandisa (2012)."Achmat, Abdurrazack". In Emmanuel Kwaku Akyeampong; Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (eds.).Dictionary of African Biography, Volumes 1–6. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 83–85.ISBN9780195382075.
^Reid, Graeme (2006)."Zackie Achmat". In Gerstner, David A. (ed.).Routledge International Encyclopedia of Queer Culture (1 ed.).Routledge. p. 2.ISBN9780415306515. Retrieved12 June 2022.
^"ZACKIE ACHMAT".SABC Elections. 6 May 2024. Archived fromthe original on 11 February 2025. Retrieved5 February 2025.
^Achmat, Zackie (1 December 1993). ""Apostles of civilised vice": 'Immoral practices' and 'unnatural vice' in South African prisons and compounds, 1890–1920".Social Dynamics.19 (2):92–110.doi:10.1080/02533959308458553.ISSN0253-3952.
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