Abdurrazack "Zackie" Achmat (born 21 March 1962) is a South African
activist and
film director.[2][3][4] He is a co-founder the
Treatment Action Campaign and known worldwide for his activism on behalf of people living with
HIV and
AIDS in South Africa. He currently serves as board member and co-director of
Ndifuna Ukwazi (Dare to Know),[5] an organisation which aims to build and support
social justice organisations and leaders, and is the chairperson of
Equal Education.[6][7]
Achmat set fire to his school in Salt River in support of the
1976 student protests and was imprisoned several times during his youth for political activities.[10][11] He joined the
African National Congress (ANC) in 1980 while serving time in prison.[12] Between 1985 and 1990 he was a member of the Marxist Workers Tendency of the ANC,[3][4] a
Trotskyist breakaway group of the ANC and precursor to the
Democratic Socialist Movement.[13]
Achmat co-founded the
National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality in 1994, and as its director he ensured protections for
gays and
lesbians in the new
South African Constitution, and facilitated the prosecution of cases that led to the decriminalisation of
sodomy and granting of equal status to same-sex partners in the immigration process.[3][4][9][20][21] Achmat wrote a much-cited article about sexuality in South African prisons, based on his personal experiences.[22]
Before co-founding the
Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) in 1998,[15] Achmat was a director of the AIDS Law Project based out of the
University of the Witwatersrand, which is now headed by Achmat's longtime collaborator Mark Heywood. The AIDS Law Project and TAC work closely together in all the legal matters that arise in the course of advocating for the
right to health, including prosecuting cases and defending TAC volunteers.[4]
Solidarity with people living with HIV and AIDS in South Africa
Achmat publicly announced his
HIV-positive status in 1998 and stated that he was refusing to take antiretroviral drugs until all who needed them had access to them.[2][9][10] 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.[23] 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.[24]
Westville Prison incident
Achmat was one of 44 TAC activists arrested in 2006 for occupying provincial government offices in
Cape Town as a protest in order to call for
Health MinisterManto Tshabalala-Msimang and
Correctional Services MinisterNgconde Balfour to be charged with culpable homicide for the death of an HIV-positive inmate at
Westville Prison in
Durban. 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.[15][25]
Social justice activism
In 2008, Achmat co-founded the
Social 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][26]
In 2013, Achmat and 18 other SJC activists were arrested for an illegal gathering outside the
Cape Town Civic Centre, where they were protesting about sanitation services in the
township of
Khayelitsha.[27]
Allegations of sexual harassment cover up
In 2018, Achmat was accused of intimidating women against speaking about sexual harassment while he was the chair of the board of
Equal Education, specifically regarding allegations against Doron Isaacs.[28] Achmat has denied the claims,[29] 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".[30] Achmat has also boasted about being feared by people in South African civil society.[31] 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.[32]
Achmat joined calls for a public inquiry into Equal Education's handling of allegations of sexual misconduct in the organisation.[33] Equal Education[34] 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.[35][36][37][38] Judge Satchwell likened the accusations to the "gutter journalism" of the Apartheid era in which "untested propaganda could rule the roost”.[39]
However, one member of Satchwell's three person inquiry, former United Nations' Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women
Rashida 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 the
Women's Legal Centre that were rejected by the commission.[40]
In 2020 Achmat became a director of Karoo Biosciences, which was a company established by Doron Isaacs.[41]
Personal life
Achmat was diagnosed HIV-positive in 1990.[2][4][42][8] In 2005 he had a
heart 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.[43]
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 Mayor
Helen Zille and presided over by his close friend
Supreme Court of Appeal judge
Edwin Cameron.[44][45] The couple divorced amicably in June 2011.[46]
Achmat's critical role in the battle for mass antiretroviral treatment in Africa is portrayed in the award-winning 2013 documentary film Fire in the Blood.[49]
Filmography
Directing
Apostles of Civilised Vice (2000) – documentary about homosexuality in South Africa[20]
Law and Freedom (2005) – two-part documentary about landmark court cases in South Africa[50][51][52]
Acting (as himself)
Jonathan Dimbleby: The AIDS Crisis in Africa (2002) – presented by
Jonathan Dimbleby
Kommt Europa in die Hölle? (English: Is Europe Going to Hell?) – directed by Robert Cibis (2004)
Darling! The Pieter-Dirk Uys Story (2007) –
BFI award-winning documentary about
Pieter-Dirk Uys directed by
Julian Shaw
^
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. Retrieved 12 June 2022.
^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.