HIV prisoners stage hunger strike

Some 242 inmates at Durban's Westville prison began refusing food after months of negotiations with the government.

A spokesman for the prisoners, Xolani Ncemu, said the strike was scheduled to last three days but could be extended.

South Africa's government currently hands out anti-retroviral drugs to about 50,000 of the approximately 6m South Africans who are HIV positive.

Although there is nothing stopping the government providing prisoners with free HIV treatment, inmates at Westville complain they have to pay for the necessary identity documents.

'Security risks'

The BBC's Nick Miles, in Johannesburg, says other prisons say they cannot give out the drugs because their hospitals have not been accredited to issue anti-retrovirals.

Others say that there are security risks involved in taking prisoners into ordinary hospitals to receive treatment.

"We are sick, we are sick," Mr Ncemu told AFP news agency from Westville prison.

"We want the minister to come and hear our demands," he said.

An HIV/Aids group based at one South African university is preparing to back the prisoners by raising their case in the country's high court next month.