Lotteries commission looks set to plug funding gap after US aid cuts to SA HIV programmes

News24

08-05-2025

The National Lotteries Commission and the private sector look set to fill the funding gap in the health sector, particularly for HIV and TB programmes.
This comes after US President Donald Trump cut funding to South Africa's health programmes.
Deputy President Paul Mashatile has told the National Assembly talks have already begun.
To fill the funding gap left by US President Donald Trump's decision to cut aid to fund HIV programmes, the government is looking towards the National Lotteries Commission and the private sector.
Deputy President Paul Mashatile told the National Assembly on Thursday there were moves to fill the health gaps in the country.
He was answering questions from MPs on a range of issues affecting the country.
'Based on the analysis of the extent of the impact of the reduced financial support, a team led by the director-general of health is already in talks with National Treasury to discuss funding options. In addition, the South African National Aids Council (SANAC) has approached the National Lotteries Commission and the SANAC Private Sector Forum to garner further funding support.
'The National Lotteries Commission has submitted a funding application for what they call the Close the Gap HIV treatment campaign and end TB campaign, which is being considered by its discretionary emergency funding. We are hopeful that all these resource mobilisation efforts will yield positive results as we cannot afford to have service delivery gaps in relation to health programmes, particularly those focusing on HIV and TB,' Mashatile told MPs.
The South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) and National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) are the only entities reporting to the Ministry of Health that received funding from the United States President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar).
The SAMRC was awarded a US$45.6 million grant by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the BRILLIANT (Bringing Innovation to Clinical and Laboratory research to end HIV In Africa through New vaccine Technology) Consortium.
The consortium develops and tests novel HIV vaccines in Africa. The NHLS received R94 657 052 annually from Pepfar.
However, the total funding for the NHLS is R210 594 552 for the period 01 October 2024 to 30 September 2025.
Mashatile said the government was also looking at acquiring affordable drugs and medicines from other countries.
'We are concerned about these cuts, and as I said earlier that we are now looking at resource mobilisation from other quarters, our own fiscals. But just to assure you that we're not looking at our own fiscals for the first time, as I said, in fact, funding from our own fiscals on these programmes already constitutes close to 75% of the budget we spend on HIV and Aids.
Mashatile said:
It is true though that when it comes to the employment of people in the districts and clinics, a lot of the funding that was used to pay for their salaries came from Pepfar and that's where the minister is trying hard now to ensure that we can deal with that.
Despite the negativity around the funding cuts, Mashatile tried to spin a positive narrative.
He said the government was now of the view that 'perhaps the decision by the US administration to cut funding must be something that really propels us to now take urgent efforts to become self-reliant, not only as South Africa, but the continent as a whole'.
'Let's start doing things for ourselves,' he said.