Borne in Johannesburg, Zackie Achmat was raised in a Muslim community in Cape Town. He started his political life at 14, as one of the leaders of the 1976 anti-apartheid school boycotts.

Between 1976 and 1980 he was arrested and detained by the security policy, and tried and imprisoned at some point in each of those years - which prevented him from completing high school.

After his release in 1980 he turned to underground work, revealing a flair for strategizing and tactical application as well as political education. He built a series of NGOs providing educational support to disadvantaged youth, skills training for school leavers and in the health sector. He was active in promoting the ANC at a mass level - from organizing the first open mass ANC funeral in the Western Cape, to publicizing the Freedom Charter in massive meters high murals spray painted onto walls all over Cape Town.

At the same time, Zackie remained critical of the leadership of the ANC, and never compromised his principles for the sake of political position or favor. This characteristic earned him intense loyalty from some, respect from others, often enmity from those in power.

Zackie's political philosophy was based on Marxism. As the events of the early 1990s unfolded he revised his ideas on Marxism and embraced the achievements of the new South African constitution. He realized that the struggle for social justice was going to be much more protracted than the perspective of 1980s suggested. He understood that the "human rights culture" required by the new South African constitution was not something automatic and would have to be fought for.

In the early 1990s he worked for the legal team defending the ANC after the Shell House massacre - a conflict between ANC and Inkhata (in reality the closest thing to an attempt by the right wing to derail the 1994 elections through armed action).

Zackie initiated the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality and, as its director, successfully saw through campaigns to ensure the retention of the clause prohibiting discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation in the Bill of Rights. He successfully brought several cases to the Constitutional Court that saw the decriminalization of sodomy and the granting of equal status to same sex partners in respect of immigration. These cases are taught in law schools in South Africa today. His political skill in holding together a national gay and lesbian organization, and his ability to orientate to the national political agenda were crucial in the success of the NCGLE that was widely acclaimed as a "model" for NGO activism.

HIV/AIDS was never far from Zackie's agenda - having initiated work in this area through an NGO as early as 1989-90. Zackie did a stint as director of the AIDS Law Project - the leading NGO nationally fighting human rights abuse cases for people with HIV/AIDS. Throughout the 1990s he felt that the struggle against HIV/AIDS was woefully disorganized and directionless. After disclosing his own positive HIV status, he turned in 1998 to do something about it, starting, with a small public demonstration on the steps of St. Georges Cathedral.

In the years since then the Treatment Action Campaign has been built into the most vocal and visible lobby fighting for the rights of HIV positive people to treatment and non-discrimination yet seen in any developing country. The TAC has notched up some real achievements: drastic reductions in the price of drugs such as Phizer's Diflucan and Glaxo's AZT, as well placing treatment of HIV and the prevention of mother to child infections on the agenda of government. Zackie has publicly vowed not to take anti-retroviral medication until it is available at an affordable price for everyone. He is currently Chairperson of the TAC.