By Asemahle Vumsindo
The People’s Republic of China has announced a major funding commitment to support South Africa’s HIV response, pledging $3.49 million (approximately R60 million) through a two-year partnership facilitated by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
Jay Kruuse, Director of the Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM), welcomed the Chinese funding, noting it “will contribute somewhat towards addressing funding shortfalls to combat HIV in South Africa.” Kruuse explained that the primary reason for the shortfall was a freeze and subsequent reduction in foreign aid, which stemmed from the foreign policy decisions of the incoming United States administration. He said that US decisions have had a global impact on patients, leading to reduced health research capacity and job losses.
The scale of the crisis
The US cuts have severely impacted South Africa’s health budget. The National Department of Health (NDoH) used to receive about 17% of its HIV funding from the USA. Following the withdrawal of foreign funding, the NDoH had to request emergency funds from the National Treasury to cover the resulting gaps.
Using the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA), PSAM requested access to correspondence between the NDoH and National Treasury, revealing the scale of the emergency intervention required:
- R590,407,000 in additional funding was provided under the Comprehensive HIV/Aids component for service delivery across provinces.
- R32,121,000 was allocated to the NDoH to support the Centralised Chronic Medicine Dispensing and Distribution (CCMDD) programme and pharmaceutical supply chain management.
- R132,000,000 will be transferred to the SA Medical Research Council to support health research.
National Treasury explained that these amounts “cover the most urgent needs and further allocations may be considered as part of the adjustments budget.”
Two-year South-South collaboration
The new funding from China, sourced from the China Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund, will directly address key gaps in prevention. The agreement follows a recent Memorandum of Understanding between UNAIDS and China’s International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) to boost South-South collaboration.
According to UNAIDS, the two-year funded project has specific targets across the country:
It will reach 54 000 adolescents and young people in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges across seven of the nine provinces.
It will support 500 people who inject drugs through harm reduction and opioid agonist therapy programmes in Gauteng province.
Kruuse concluded that the shift in United States foreign policy has necessitated that South Africa make adjustments and alternative arrangements to combat its health challenges, and the funding support from China will contribute towards these revised arrangements.
