Thousands of AIDS activists have marched on the South African parliament demanding that the government wake up to the pandemic that is sweeping the country.
Almost 5.5 million South Africans are HIV-positive and more than 300,000 died from AIDS last year.
The Treatment Action Campaign is demanding state hospitals treat 200,000 AIDS sufferers by 2006, and accuses President Thabo Mbeki's government of stalling the provision of life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs.
TAC officials said they planned to rekindle a public protest campaign seeking to force wider distribution of the treatment in the public sector, saying South Africa does not have much time left to turn the tide against the disease.
