Compulsory licensing Compulsory licensing is one alternative. It allows a government to legally manufacture patented goods when it is in the public interest to do so. Countries like France, the USA, Poland and Britain use compulsory licensing to ensure that their people have access to the medicines that they need. In South Africa we have given ourselves the legal right to issue compulsory licenses to expropriate military patents. However we have not given ourselves the right to issue compulsory licenses to expropriate medical patents.
Parallel imports Parallel imports are another alternative.
This is when a government legally imports a patented product for a country where it is sold at a cheaper price than in the local market. The drug companies are charging grossly inflated prices for their medicines because they know that there are some rich people in South Africa who can afford these prices. The drug companies are clearly abusing their patents and that gives our government the legal right to import medicines from those countries where they are sold at cheaper prices. They changed the history of this country. In 1976, the Soweto uprising put another nail in apartheid s coffin.