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facts about zackie achmat.html

25 Facts About Zackie Achmat

facts about zackie achmat.html1.

Abdurrazack "Zackie" Achmat was born on 21 March 1962 and is a South African activist and film director.

2.

Zackie Achmat 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.

3.

Zackie Achmat served as board member and co-director of Ndifuna Ukwazi, an organisation which aims to build and support social justice organisations and leaders, and was the chairperson of Equal Education.

4.

Zackie Achmat was raised by his mother and his aunt who were both shop stewards for the Garment Workers Union.

5.

Zackie Achmat did not matriculate but nevertheless graduated with a BA Hons degree in English literature from the University of the Western Cape in 1992 and studied filmmaking at the Cape Town Film School.

6.

Zackie 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.

7.

Zackie Achmat joined the African National Congress in 1980 while serving time in prison.

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8.

Zackie Achmat describes his political ideology as democratic socialist since the unbanning of the ANC in 1990.

9.

In 2006, Zackie Achmat called on fellow party members to formulate appropriate HIV policies and oust Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.

10.

Zackie Achmat has been outspoken in his criticism of President Jacob Zuma and ANC corruption.

11.

Zackie Achmat stood as an independent for national parliament on the Western Cape regional list in the 2024 South African general election.

12.

Zackie Achmat received 10679 votes, which does not reach the minimum threshold required to gain a seat in the National Assembly.

13.

Zackie Achmat conceded defeat and vowed to continue politics by contesting in the 2026 local elections.

14.

Zackie 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.

15.

Zackie Achmat was involved in cases regarding the rights of HIV-diagnosed prisoners and hate crimes against gay and lesbian couples perpetrated by police.

16.

Zackie Achmat co-founded the Treatment Action Campaign in 1998, a grassroots organization advocating for open and easy access to antiretroviral drugs for treating HIV.

17.

Zackie 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.

18.

Zackie Achmat began taking antiretrovirals in August 2003 when a national congress of TAC activists voted to urge him to begin antiretroviral treatment.

19.

Zackie Achmat finally announced that he would start treatment shortly before the government announced that it would make antiretrovirals available in the public sector.

20.

Zackie 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.

21.

In 2008, Zackie Achmat co-founded the Social Justice Coalition, 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.

22.

Zackie Achmat has boasted about being feared by people in South African civil society.

23.

In 2020 Zackie Achmat became a director of Karoo Biosciences, which was a company established by Doron Isaacs.

24.

Zackie Achmat recovered sufficiently to return to his activism work.

25.

On 5 January 2008, Zackie Achmat married his partner and fellow activist Dalli Weyers at a ceremony in the Cape Town suburb of Lakeside.

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