Zackie Achmat (Abdurazzack Achmat) was born on 21 March 1962 in Johannesburg; he was raised in a Muslim community in Cape Town. He started his political struggle at 14, as one of the leaders of the 1976 anti-apartheid school boycotts. Between 1976 and 1980 he was arrested by the security policy on more than 5 occasions as a youth activist, which prevented him from completing high school.

After his release in 1980 he started to do underground work including political education. He built a chain of NGOs offering educational support to underprivileged youth, skills education for school leavers and in the health area. Achmat`s political belief was based on Marxism. During the early 1990s he attended events where he revised his facts on Marxism and embrace the successes of the new South African Constitution. He is still an active member of the African National Congress.

Achmat also campaigned for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. He is also a founder member of the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality. This coalition campaigned for the equality section in the Constitution, the decriminalisation of same-sex practices and the equal rights of lesbian and gay relationships. He introduced a lot of cases to the Constitutional Court that saw the decriminalization of sodomy and the granting of equal status to same sex partners in respect of immigration. The South African law schools are teaching these cases today.

Achmat was also a director of the AIDS Law Project (1989-90). The AIDS Law Project is the leading NGO countrywide which is fighting for human rights abuse cases for people with HIV/AIDS. When he disclosed his HIV positive status; Achmat refused to take anti-retroviral medication until it was available at an affordable price for everyone. In 1998 he started to take some actions about it, he started with a small public demonstration on the steps of St. Georges Cathedral. In December 1998, he launched the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) with 10 other activists. TAC was established with the purpose of fighting for the rights of HIV positive people to be treatment and with non-discrimination.  The TAC has won some of its battles which are: reductions in the cost of drugs such as Phizer's Diflucan and Glaxo's AZT, and prioritised treatment of HIV and the prevention of mother to child infections on the programmes of government.

After the 2002 international Aids conference in Barcelona, he became sick. He had continuous infections such as diarrhoea, chronic lung infection, herpes and thrush. But his life changed, soon before cabinet provided the world's largest anti-retroviral treatment programme. He took his first "sunset yellow" pill - a cocktail of three antiretroviral agents. "Before long the infections disappeared and he could resume reading 800 pages a week"(Brummer, 2004).

Zackie Achmat has researched, written and directed many TV documentaries. In 2004 he completed a 2 part documentary called Law and Freedom. This document is exploring key decisions of the Constitutional Court and it is narrated by Achmat. He was awarded the first Desmond Tutu Fellowship in October 2001. In 2002 he was awarded an Honorary Masters Degree at the University of Cape Town. In 2003, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Law from the University of Natal. And then in 2005 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of the Western Cape.   In 2004, he was nominated along with the TAC for the Nobel Peace Prize 2004. Achmat has received several other awards, including; In April 2001 he was named TIME magazine's "Person of the Week" and The Treatment Action Campaign won an MTV Free Your Mind Award in Germany in November 2001.

On 5 January 2008 Achmat got married to his co-campaigner boyfriend Dali Weyers by Judge Edwin Cameron at the Imperial Yacht Club, the ceremony was attended by hundreds of guests. After being married for a few years, Weyers and Achmat divorced, due to too many differences. 

Achmat has since then been very involved in the Media Freedom campaign and have been very outspoken about the occupation of Palestine.

Sources:

• wikipedia
• Time Magazine
• guardian.co.uk

Page created: 18 January 2012