Zackie Achmat is a socialist who joined the struggle as a high school student during the 1976 student revolt against white minority rule. Together with thousands of youth across the country, Zackie was detained, held in solitary confinement and tortured between the age of fifteen and eighteen. During the 1980 high school and university student rebellion, he was detained without trial. Zackie was recruited to the banned African National Congress (ANC) in prison to work both openly organising building youth, student, worker, civic and health organisations. Together with his other comrades, Zackie joined the Marxist Worker’s Tendency of the ANC in 1985.

Zackie was diagnosed with HIV in 1990. In 1994, he joined the AIDS Law Project founded by Justice Edwin Cameron. He co-founded the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality in the same year. Zackie became one of the founders and leaders of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) on 10 December 1998. He has collaborated with HIV activists and humanitarian agencies worldwide including Médecins Sans Frontiérs, UNAIDS and the World Health Organization. Since then, he co-founded and led movements such as Equal Education, the Social Justice Coalition, Ndifuna Ukwazi, Reclaim the City, and #UniteBehind. These movements focused on political education, research, mobilization, and litigation. Zackie also continues to fight against state capture, corruption, mismanagement, fraud, incompetence, and criminality through the work of #UniteBehind. Recently, he co-founded the Global Coalition for HIV Treatment to help address the criminal cuts to PEPFAR by the Trump regime.

In 2024, Zackie stood for Parliament as an independent and failed in his bid to gain a seat.

As an internationalist, Zackie is committed to the people of Palestine and liberation struggles everywhere. Justice, equality, dignity and freedom is at the core of all the organisations with which Zackie has worked.