INLSA

DESPERATE ACTION: TAC campaigners hand over a memorandum to Gauteng Health MEC Ntombi Mekgwe. Picture: Motshwari Mofokeng

South African recipients of money from the Global Fund to fight Aids, TB and Malaria have pleaded with the health minister to intervene as they continue to wait for overdue funds.

Failure to do so would see several programmes closing and people losing their jobs.

The group, including Soul City and the Treatment Action Campaign, were due to receive payments from the fund in July 2011 and last month. None have materialised.

“This grant funds life-saving programmes that we implement. These payments are late. Some of us have continued to implement our Global Fund-sponsored programmes using reserve funds and other income, but we can no longer continue to do this. The consequence is that our programmes will have to close and many people will have to be retrenched,” the group said.

“The Department of Health is the principal recipient of the grant. It is unclear to us why the grant has been delayed continuously. Our understanding is that the Global Fund systems are extremely complex and that the fund is not satisfied that the Department of Health has met its stringent criteria.

“We also understand that the effort to consolidate the round 6, round 9 and round 10 grants into a single stream has contributed to the delay,” the letter said.

“Whatever the reasons, we know that each of us has made a great effort to meet the demands of the principal recipient and the Global Fund. It is unfortunate that the Global Fund has failed to make contingency plans and defaulted its payment. The situation is now dire.”

Fidel Hadebe, spokesman for Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, said the country could not afford to see any of these organisations closing down. He said, however, that “these are circumstances not in our direct control”.

“We are doing all we can to ensure that those resources due to the country are disbursed. We have come a long way and we cannot afford for these kind of problems to take us backwards,” Hadebe said.

Signatories of the letter include the Community Media Trust, Humana People to People, Mindset, Redpeg, Society for Family Health, Soul City and the Treatment Action Campaign. It is estimated that the Global Fund saves up to 100 000 lives each month. – Health-e News Service