PEPFAR contingency plans underway after US exit - Mashatile
Deputy President Paul Mashatile says the government is working on contingency measures to close the gap left by the withdrawal of US foreign aid.
Mashatile delivered the keynote address at the commemoration of World TB Day in KwaZulu-Natal on Monday.
South Africa is one of the countries affected by US President Donald Trump’s decision to slash US foreign aid funding in late January.
The US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) -- among those hit by the funding cuts -- supported numerous programmes focusing on prevention, counselling and monitoring and amounted to 17 per cent of South Africa's overall HIV response.
South Africa has one of the highest TB infections, with an estimated 427 new TB cases per 100,000 people in 2023, with 7.7 million people living with HIV in the same year.
"The recent ‘PEPFAR Pause’ has disrupted critical TB programmes, threatening progress in case detection, treatment access, and research efforts,” Mashatile admitted.
"This underscores the urgent need for contingency planning and building a resilient health system that can withstand external shocks, ensuring uninterrupted TB services and long-term sustainability,
Mashatile said the government is strengthening sustainability planning at national and provincial levels.
"We need to re-think HIV and TB service delivery models and transition to country leadership. Contingency planning is essential to absorb the short-term shocks resulting from the PEPFAR situation, a process currently driven by the National Department of Health,
"However, as HIV and TB become more integrated into primary health care and frontline services, responsibility for service delivery transitions from external funders.”
Mashatile assured those in attendance that TB and HIV services and treatment are still available for free at all public health facilities despite the US withdrawal.
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