Budget 3.0: Some political parties worried about non-allocation of funds for SA's HIV programme

JOHANNESBURG - Concerns have been raised by some political parties over the government not allocating money to cover the shortfall of using USAID.

Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump suspended the president’s emergency plan for AIDS relief, also known as PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief).

As one of the many countries that receive aid through PEPFAR, the suspension left South Africa’s HIV fight efforts with a budgetary gap of more than R8 billion.

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During his budget speech on Wednesday, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said allocations to cover PEPFAR have not been made yet.

United Democratic Movement (UDM) deputy president Nqabayomzi Kwankwa says Godongwana is treating the budget as a statement of hope instead of making concrete plans.

“It means we are treating this budget like manna from heaven, we are going to pray and expect him to fall from heaven, that only happened during biblical times. That is why some of the expenditure items, which are very sticky, like providing funding for PEPFAR, have been deferred to a future point in time. He says once resources allow.”

Democratic Alliance (DA) national spokesperson Karabo Khakhau says the party is hopeful President Cyril Ramaphosa’s bilateral meeting with Trump today will result in the reinstatement of PEPFAR.

 “We are obviously very worried because HIV is a very serious illness in this country, and we want to make sure the country is safe, and we want to have a healthy population. We also know today, the president of the country is engaging the US, and we will see what comes out of those engagements.”