Chantelle Benjamin
1 December 2008
Johannesburg — THE health department's inefficiency had played a major role in the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) cutting back on an AIDS literacy programme and retrenching 20% of its staff, the AIDS lobby group said yesterday.
This was after R80m in funding from the Global Fund to fight AIDS was put on hold because the government did not have structures to administer it.
As World Aids Day is observed today, it appears at least 12 other local organisations dealing with AIDS, including Soul City, will be affected.
This is not the first time money from the Global Fund could not be used because of government bungling.
In 2002, $40m intended for projects in KwaZulu-Natal was not made available because there were no structures in place to administer the money.
The fund has already paid some of the money , but had continually warned former health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang that a grant management team should be set up to co-ordinate about R400m intended for organisations dealing with AIDS, or funding would be stopped.
The news of the TAC's dire financial situation comes as a scathing report by Harvard University academics places SA's AIDS situation and the death of at least 330000 people at the feet of former President Thabo Mbeki's government.
Yesterday, TAC spokesman Nathan Geffen said Health Minister Barbara Hogan was trying to address the problem, but it could not be fixed overnight.
"It would take months to set up the structures and this is a problem we inherited from Tshabalala-Msimang's time. Some of the money has come though, but only after we had already spent it, and it's not enough," Geffen said.
The TAC said yesterday it had a financial shortfall that has forced it to cut back drastically. "In large part, though not exclusively, this is due to a several million rand tranche of our global fund grant that has not been paid. The responsibility for this lies with the department of health, which as the principal recipient of the grant has failed to meet its conditions."
It said the lack of money from the fund and the economic crisis that was affecting other donors had forced it to retrench staff and scale down its AIDS literacy bursary programme.
The Harvard School of Public Health's research looked at the consequences of the government's refusal in 2000 and 2005 to put in place a feasible antiretroviral programme when neighbouring countries ramped up their HIV-prevention programmes.
SA now has the highest number of adults infected with HIV - almost one in five - and 5,7-million people affected altogether.
Hogan's spokeswoman was not available for comment, but the health minister has made it clear the government intends to increase access to treatment and that AIDS denialism is over.
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