Investigation Update - Nortje

Investigation Update - Nortje

By Darren Olivier   Thursday, February 03, 2011   No comments:

This blog reported on the murder of Johan Nortje which lead to a call for an urgent investigation by the local police force assisted by Interpol and the World Customs Organisation. The call has lead to numerous testimonials and strong support by anti-counterfeit teams in law firms, brand owners, anti-counterfeiting groups, blogs, trade magazines and individuals from around the world. The voting has reached over 260 in favour of the investigation and a summary of the testimonials can be located here with previous updates here.

Afro Leo with the help of Izabella Panek spent over two hours trying to get in touch by telephone and email with Interpol's HQ, their South African Office, the World Customs Organisation and the KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Monnye Ngobeni whose office heads up the local investigation. The only joy came from Ngobeni's office who referred us to Brigadier Gopaul who informed Afro Leo that "he was not  in charge of the investigation" but he was "responsible for helping to deal with the affairs of Johan Nortje and his family". He explained that  we had to  "be patient" and would not comment on the investigation but admitted  that an "investigation was underway" and that he was aware of the calls from brand owners and the industry. 

The Brigadier went on to suggest that parties interested in making a contribution could do so directly to the family or by assisting with funding for training or facilities of the local office (readers who wish to do so please email afroipmail@gmail.com and we will gladly put you in touch.). Brigadier Gopaul was Johan Nortje's commanding officer and is also currently looking at ways to minimise the risk to individuals on his force.

Afro Leo read, with interest, the efforts of World Trademark Review's Trevor Little in Paris yesterday at the WCO Congress on combating Counterfeiting and Piracy who directed questions at the Secretary Generals (Ronald Noble and Kunio Mikuriya) of both Interpol and WCO about the incident. Both refused to comment on the investigation (which I suppose is one better than refusing to answer our emails and telephone messages). Trevor's post "Enforcement Agencies tight lipped over South Africa murder investigation" is contained here.

In summary, an investigation is taking place but the involvement of Interpol and WCO is unclear. I suppose at least they know about the incident and thanks to WTR for pressing the issue. Gopaul explained that the investigation would unlikely call on Interpol or the WCO unless they felt there was a need to. So we wait. The South African Authorities are under pressure for a full report.

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WSJ reports on the Access to Drugs debate

WSJ reports on the Access to Drugs debate

By Darren Olivier   Monday, August 30, 2010   No comments:

It is always good to see an article on Africa in the Wall Street Journal. Alec van Gelder, who has commented on this blog before writes that:

"The drug companies do make easy targets but that doesn't make them villains. The life-saving treatments they create remain Africa's best hope. The misguided battle against pharmaceutical companies' patent rights will only make Africa's health crisis worse..."

Right - seized drugs (AFP)

The full article explains that lack of domestic infrastructure and misguided aid are the real villains (I was able to read article first time without the need to subscribe and hope you can too).

Afro Leo was in a conversation this month with a fork lift driver and building site manager from Durban who explained that every person on his 30 strong team was infected. "You would not notice the difference until they do not take their ARVs. Men capable of lifting bags of cement for an entire shift, die within months." I asked him why they would not take their ARVs and he explained that it was sometimes cost and sometimes supply. For further reading on the "patents v access" debate on this blog, type in "access to drugs" in the search block on Afro-IP.

Meanwhile late last week, Interpol, East Africa announced the seizure of 10 tonnes of counterfeit drugs. Yahoo news article here. The WHO, one of the targets of Alec's article, ironically gets part of the credit. The massive raid nicknamed Mamba III involved targets in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Given the recent debate over Kenya's definition of "counterfeit" (which included comment on the WHO's definition of the term) Afro Leo welcomes clarification on whether the confiscated drugs were fakes or actually generics that may fall within the definition of "counterfeit".

General

* Congratulations to Nevashni Pillay who got Friday's "Where in Africa?" correct! This Friday Afro Leo will continue his travels to IP hubs across Africa.

* Last week we reported on the Africa Media Rights Watch initiative here. Dugie Standeford, writing for the excellent IP Watch, provides further information on the initiative in this piece here

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INTERPOL: too little, too late?

INTERPOL: too little, too late?

By Jeremy   Wednesday, December 10, 2008   No comments:

In "Rapid Rise In African Anti-Counterfeiting Efforts Led By Developed Nations", Nick Wadhams (writing for Intellectual Property Watch) describes the activities of international law enforcement agency INTERPOL in bringing national authorities in Africa up to speed on the threat faced by those who depend on the imports, from hospital patients to pharmacists to farmers. One of INTERPOL's programmes is OASIS-Africa, the initiative that led to the seizure of more than 100 kinds of medical products, including anti-malarial pills, multivitamins, skin medicines and heart drugs in Uganda and Tanzania. The article then goes on to outline the scale of the problem, which is vast and endemic, the damage it causes, the shifting tactics of the counterfeiters and the apparent indifference or slow response on the part of countries from which counterfeit product is sourced.

Reading this article, one wonders whether the activities of INTERPOL and its backers might be characterised as "too little, too late". There is also a sense of helplessness and lack of resolve on the part of Africa as the victim continent. Imagine if African nations were accused by China of supplying that country with counterfeit medical and other products: would the Chinese response be so ineffective? It seems most unlikely. But African middlemen are presumably among those who profit most from the peddling of these products, aided by largely poor consumers whose option for treatment is bounded as much by their lack of spending power as anything else.

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