Cyril Ramaphosa calls US funding cut ‘a wake-up call’

President Cyril Ramaphosa has described the US decision to cut funding for USAID-funded programmes in SA as a “wake-up call” for the government to become more self-reliant.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA’s ninth national congress on Tuesday, Ramaphosa emphasised the need for SA to rely on its own resources.

“It’s entirely within their own right, it’s their money,” he said.

“In many ways it’s a wake-up call on our part as South Africans that we’ve got to find ways of being self-reliant, of relying on our own resources, and that is what our people expect, even within our fiscal constraints and challenges.”

The US funding cut has halted about $440m (R8bn) for SA’s ARV treatment programme provided through the US President’s Emergency Fund for Aids Relief (Pepfar). The move has put at risk the jobs of about 15,000 healthcare workers involved in ARV treatment programmes and the treatment framework for HIV-positive patients who relied on the programmes.

Ramaphosa reaffirmed the government’s commitment to prioritising the welfare of South Africans.

“This is a matter we’re discussing. Our sovereignty is important and should also mean we must find ways, all the time, to look after the welfare of South Africans with our own resources.”

Earlier this month, health minister Aaron Motsoaledi initiated urgent discussions with local and global funding organisations to raise money for the HIV treatment programme.

He said: “We have met many funders, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, the Elmar Foundation, the Gates Foundation, the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office of the UK, our own FirstRand, the trustees of the Solidarity Fund, not the Solidarity that ran to [US President Donald] Trump but the Solidarity Fund established during Covid.”

TimesLIVE