No back-up plan yet for potential loss of health care aid from US, says Treasury

CAPE TOWN - The Treasury says it’s not yet made a back-up plan for the potential loss of health care aid from the United States should President Donald Trump’s 90-day freeze become permanent. 

In January, Trump stopped foreign aid which in the last financial year contributed about R7 billion to South Africa’s HIV/Aids programmes. 

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said the next steps will be determined after an independent review of the country’s programmes that are supported by the US president’s emergency plan for Aids relief, known as PEPFAR. 

South Africa receives around 17% of its funding for HIV/Aids programmes through the US president’s emergency plan for Aids relief.

With more than seven million people living with HIV in South Africa, and the government’s plans to get another million of them on treatment this year, the permanent withdrawal of PEPFAR funding could dash these plans. 

Treasury Director General Duncan Pieterse:

“Of course, it’s still highly uncertain, because we don’t know what’s going to happen, but the department is taking the right steps to ensure we are prepared for the worst outcome.”

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said he wants to see the outcome of the health department’s review of the HIV/Aids programmes supported by PEPFAR before the US’s 90-day freeze either ends or becomes permanent. 

“The USA staff was heavy on administration. It may well be that the kind of administration they had, is too costly for us.”

Godongwana was expected to announce a health care boost of more than R28 billion over the next three years, in Wednesday’s proposed budget, that he failed to deliver sparked by a Value-Added Tax (VAT) increase proposal that didn’t sit well with the Government of National Unity (GNU) parties.