Two years after approving the world's largest plan to combat HIV/Aids, South Africa's government is still sending mixed messages about antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, the main medicaments used in its treatment.

A lawsuit to be heard in Cape Town shortly promises to bring to a head the controversy over ARVs, a life-and-death matter for 6.5m South Africans (out of a population of 45m) living with the disease.