We won't send ARVS to zama zamas without a prescription – Motsoaledi

“We can't just dish out ARVs like that. It is not Panado or vitamins or over-the-counter medication.”

This is what the health minister Aaron Motsoaledi said when responding to the request made by illegal miners who are underground in the Old Buffelsfontein mine in Stilfontein, North West.

On Monday, the illegal miners sent a letter up to the surface which stated: “Sicela ama ARVs plz, abantu bayawadinga ngapha. Siyacela!” Loosely means, “We need ARVs, people need them here, please!”

After they were sent water using a rope, the illegal miners used the same rope to send the letter up.

However, speaking to Sowetan on Wednesday, Motsoaledi said that they will not send any ARVs without a prescription. 

“No patient can just stand up and say, 'I am demanding ARVs. First, a diagnostic should be made by a health worker that the person is HIV positive and there should be a prescription,” said Motsoaledi. 

“If they [community volunteers] approach us and say they want ARVs, we will ask who the patient is, who has diagnosed them, which doctor has prescribed for that patient – those are the questions we will ask.

“This is a prescription medicine which is controlled and which must be given to a particular individual by a doctor. If there is any doctor that says he has a patient down there and has diagnosed them and [that he or she] has been delivering ARVs to that patient and [he] wants to go and deliver, that will not be stopped by police.

“But for us health [department], we can't just go anywhere and find a group of people who say I want ARVs, and you start dishing them up like that. We are not even sure the people who are demanding ARVs have been diagnosed, have they been on treatment?” 

The Society for the Protection of Our Constitution has approached the court, seeking a mandatory interdict on the government's provision of emergency disaster relief to the miners underground, including food, water, medical aid and blankets.

The deputy police commissioner Lt-Gen Tebello Mosikili said in court papers it would make a mockery of the criminal justice system if police were to allow the bulk supply of food, explosives, generators, firearms and alcohol to the illegal miners.

It is believed that hundreds of illegal miners are refusing to resurface as they fear arrest. 

Since the police's Operation Vala Umgodi started, 1,187 illegal miners have resurfaced and were arrested. 

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