Nicoli Nattrass Wins Top Academic Book Prize
Professor Nicoli Nattrass of the University of Cape Town’s School of
Economics has won the country’s top academic book prize, following in the
footsteps of her husband Professor Jeremy Seekings, a previous recipient of the
award.
 Dean of the Faculty of Commerce Professor Melvin Ayogu announced today that
Nattrass had won the Bill Venter/Altron Literary Award for her
internationally-acclaimed book “The Moral Economy of Aids in South Africa.” Her
husband won the same award in 2004 for his book on the United Democratic Front.
Nattrass said it was “really great” to win the prize and good to follow in the
footsteps of her husband, her “harshest critic and strongest supporter” who had
tested her arguments during walks together on Table Mountain.
Her book was chosen by an independent panel chaired by Land Claims Court Judge
Fikile Bam from a line-up of 25 books submitted by universities from across
South Africa. In total, Altron Group Chairman Dr Bill Venter has donated more
than R1 million in prize money during the 21 years of this award to support
academic excellence.
Nattrass won the R75 000 prize for her first book on AIDS, compiled during the
peak of AIDS denialism. It examined the arguments that the government was making
at the time that the use of antiretrovirals was unaffordable. Wearing her
economist’s hat, Nattrass was able to show that, instead, the government could
have saved money if it had introduced a national mother to child transmission
prevention programme.
She argued that the cost of treating sick children with AIDS would be greater
than the cost of preventing them from getting AIDS.
After the publication of her first book, she was given a gentle reprimand by an
official in the National Treasury, who argued that it was not Finance Minister
Trevor Manuel’s fault. She then became aware that National Treasury had
allocated budget to the Health Ministry, but these had consistently not been
used.
This spurred Nattrass to write her second book “Mortal Combat: AIDS Denialism
and the Struggle for Antiretroviral Treatment in South Africa.” This updated
book was written after the prices of antiretrovirals had dropped, making her
argument even more compelling.
She said she still feels immense frustration at government’s failure to
implement its rollout plan. In her second book, she shows that although National
Treasury has allocated budget for the rollout of anti-retrovirals, only 35% of
the plan had been implemented by the time of writing.
She is passionate in trying to understand “why the post Apartheid government
took such a tragically wrong turn on AIDS” and concludes that blame should be
laid at the door of the Ministry of Health for undermining the legitimacy of
science as the benchmark for AIDS treatment.
Nattrass is currently exploring the relationship between AIDS, leadership and
the role of civil society. She seeks to uncover why some countries, such as
Brazil, Uganda and Thailand have been effective in dealing with the epidemic,
while South Africa has shown the least political will.
Besides working as an economist, Nattrass engages in action-oriented research at
outreach programmes in the Western Cape. It is difficult to remain a clinical
economist when she experiences the human tragedy at first hand and she says it
is a challenge to manage the tension between head and heart.
She says: “There is nothing worse than going to the funeral of a child who has
died unnecessarily of HIV.”
Posted on 08/07/2008 by Carolyn McGibbon
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