By Enyichukwu Enemanna
South Africa’s Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, says the United States’ decision to halt its HIV funding programme is a “wake-up call” for his country.
In response to termination notices issued by the US late on Wednesday, Dr Motsoaledi said the cuts could have a serious impact but instructed state-funded clinics to ensure that no patient went without life-saving drugs.
The US’s HIV programme was launched in 2003 by then-US President George W. Bush and is known as the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
PEPFAR funding is distributed via the US government’s main overseas aid agency, USAID. It has been regarded as a ground-breaking scheme that has enabled some of the world’s poorest people to access antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) and has saved more than 25 million lives worldwide.
South Africa is one of the biggest beneficiaries of PEPFAR, which contributes about 17% to its HIV/AIDS programme, supporting approximately 5.5 million of the eight million people living with HIV in the country in receiving ARVs.
Health experts say PEPFAR funding has also been instrumental in HIV cure research and warn that the cuts could set that work back by years.
The Desmond Tutu Health Foundation has expressed concern that the US’s decision could result in as many as half a million deaths.
South Africa’s leading AIDS lobby group, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), warned that the country could see a return to the days when HIV patients struggled to access essential treatment services.
Trump has embarked on sweeping reforms aimed at cutting financial aid to African countries. In South Africa, where President Cyril Ramaphosa recently signed a land administration law that Washington claimed targeted white landowners, Trump earlier this month signed an executive order terminating funding to the country.
Ramaphosa said he is ready to “do a deal” to normalise relations between Pretoria and Washington but did not provide details.
Trump’s ally and tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has repeatedly accused South Africa of genocide against white citizens, had recommended scrapping USAID, which had provided funding to Africa for decades.
