The indifferent industry
Big Pharma, essential medicines and Africa’s sick

FAIR Investigation 2007

During the course of this Transnational Investigation (TI) two members of our team died and one became severely ill. Hilary Mbobe is waging a valiant battle against cryptococcal meningitis as well as a compromised immune system as this preface is written. Our South African TI team member, Zakeus Chibaya, died in August this year after severe pneumonia attacked his weakened immune system. Our Zambian colleague Isabella Chimangeni had succumbed to a  number of infections three months earlier, just after she had agreed to join the team. The ravaging by disease and death of the very team tasked with investigating lack of access to medication in Africa underscores how much we, as African journalists, are part of the African public we serve. We do not  observe Africa from another planet: we are here. We are affected, damaged and killed by the same phenomena and conditions that affect, damage and kill ‘ordinary’  Africans. As journalists, we do not benefit from the extraordinary luxuries, private jets, private doctors and American and Swiss clinics our ruling elites have access to; we battle and suffer next to our readers, listeners and viewers. As the voices of the African public, we are that public.  Click here to read the stories