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UN AIDS grant in jeopardy despite agreement
Tamar Kahn
2002-07-18

Government moved yesterday to allay fears that it was blocking a R600m grant to KwaZulu-Natal from a United Nations (UN) AIDS fund, but a statement issued after a meeting between provincial health MEC Zweli Mkhize and Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang appeared to have the opposite effect. The meeting followed threats of legal action after reports that national government was blocking the funds. Mkhize said he and Tshabalala-Msimang had agreed that SA welcomed the grant, even though KwaZulu-Natal did not follow the correct procedures in applying for the money. He said they had agreed the money would be pooled under the SA National AIDS Council and be used in a manner that will benefit all the provinces equitably and within programmes contained within the proposals submitted to the global fund. Observers said this raised questions about whether the UN Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and malaria would release the money, as the grants are approved by the fund on a project-specific basis. The fund's programme manager, Mazuwa Banda, said in a recent interview with Business Day that funds approved for KwaZulu-Natal could not be redirected, because approval was project specific. Unlike national government's project proposals, which focus on HIV prevention, the KwaZulu-Natal projects include treatment programmes. Democratic Alliance health spokesman Mike Ellis said nothing in Mkhize's statement indicated whether national government intended to siphon off KwaZulu-Natal's award for use in other parts of the country. Until such a time as we receive confirmation of the funds' acceptance of the changed circumstances, there remains concern as to the possibility of this donation being lost, Ellis said. Mark Heywood of the Treatment Action Campaign, which was behind the threats of legal action over the alleged blocking of the funds, said he believed KwaZulu-Natal had bowed to pressure from the national health department and surrendered the R600m award. (Source: Business Day, 17 July 2002)

p>Government moved yesterday to allay fears that it was blocking a R600m grant to KwaZulu-Natal from a United Nations (UN) AIDS fund, but a statement issued after a meeting between provincial health MEC Zweli Mkhize and Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang appeared to have the opposite effect. 

The meeting followed threats of legal action after reports that national government was blocking the funds. Mkhize said he and Tshabalala-Msimang had agreed that SA welcomed the grant, even though KwaZulu-Natal did not follow the correct procedures in applying for the money.

He said they had agreed the money would be pooled under the SA National AIDS Council and be used in a manner that will benefit all the provinces equitably and within programmes contained within the proposals submitted to the global fund.

Observers said this raised questions about whether the UN Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and malaria would release the money, as the grants are approved by the fund on a project-specific basis. The fund's programme manager, Mazuwa Banda, said in a recent interview with Business Day that funds approved for KwaZulu-Natal could not be redirected, because approval was project specific. Unlike national government's project proposals, which focus on HIV prevention, the KwaZulu-Natal projects include treatment programmes.

Democratic Alliance health spokesman Mike Ellis said nothing in Mkhize's statement indicated whether national government intended to siphon off KwaZulu-Natal's award for use in other parts of the country. 

Until such a time as we receive confirmation of the funds' acceptance of the changed circumstances, there remains concern as to the possibility of this donation being lost, Ellis said.

Mark Heywood of the Treatment Action Campaign, which was behind the threats of legal action over the alleged blocking of the funds, said he believed KwaZulu-Natal had bowed to pressure from the national health department and surrendered the R600m award. (Source: Business Day, 17 Ju

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