ACT UP to protest outside South African embassy

ACT UP, the Student Global AIDS Campaign, and the African Services Committee are sponsoring a protest of South Africa's refusal to provide HIV antiretroviral medications to the country's estimated 5 million HIV-positive people for April 24 outside the South African embassy in Washington, D.C. The march and protest will begin at 1 p.m. at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and California Street NW and will proceed to the embassy at 3051 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Protesters plan to carry "Stop Medical Apartheid" flags and oversize photos of South Africans living with HIV/AIDS. The activists also plan to leave 600 pairs of shoes at the embassy to represent the 600 people who die of AIDS-related complications each day in South Africa. The country's government refuses to provide anti-HIV drugs to the nation's HIV-positive population because it claims the medications are toxic and too expensive.