Motsoaledi announces R1 billion funding boost to plug PEPFAR gap

CAPE TOWN - Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has announced a billion rand funding boost to plug the gap left by the United States' withdrawal of support for the country’s HIV/AIDS programmes. 

Motsoaledi on Wednesday told Parliament that the Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust would each pledge R100 million for research purposes, on the provision that Treasury doubled the contributions.

Delivering his budget vote address, Motsoaledi said the National Treasury had agreed to make an additional allocation of R750 million to the department for its HIV/AIDS programmes.

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The country has lost out on around R8 billion in funding after the US pulled the plug on what was known as PEPFAR, a presidential AIDS funding programme started by US President George W Bush in 2003. 

But Health Minister Motsoaledi said that government would never allow the world’s biggest HIV/AIDS treatment programme to collapse. 

"Treasury is going to add four hundred million, the Gates Foundation, together with the Wellcome Trust, together they will give us R200 million."

Treasury’s matching R400 million will be released over a period of three years. 

The first tranche of R132 million will be transferred to the South African Medical Research Council in this financial year, to support researchers in universities and other institutions.

The biggest chunk of Treasury’s allocation in the amount of R590 million will go towards service delivery in the provinces.

A further R32 million is intended to support chronic medicine dispensing.

Government aims to get 1.1 million people on antiretroviral treatment by the end of the year.