A leading AIDS activist caused a stir by demanding the South African health minister's removal in the presence of the deputy president at a conference on Tuesday. Our government has failed us. We must speak the truth. We are willing to work with you [the government] anytime; you have ignored our letters; you have not spoken to us, but we are ready to talk," Zackie Achmat, leader of the AIDS lobby group, Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) told Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka at a conference of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) outside Johannesburg.