Government to follow original proposals

Money earmarked by the Global Fund to fight AIDS for KwaZulu-Natal will be spent on the province's intended programmes, but coordinated by South Africa's national AIDS council, the government has decided.

"The money will now be re-routed via SANAC [South African National AIDS Council], the only thing that has changed is the route the money will go through," Chris Mokalatsie, spokesman for KwaZulu-Natal's HIV/AIDS Unit, told PlusNews.

Health Minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang met provincial ministers of health on Thursday and Friday last week. It was decided that the KwaZulu-Natal donation would be accepted and used for the original local programmes.

Tshabalala-Msimang and KwaZulu-Natal's health minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize, were mandated to inform the Fund about the agreement and finalise arrangements on how the money would be received and disbursed.

The provincial and national health departments reached an agreement that the money from the Fund would be disbursed "equitably", but there have been no indications on how this will happen.

The Global Fund had not yet received official word on how the money would be spent, spokeswoman Melanie Zipperer told PlusNews. "We cannot comment until this happens because of the political issues involved," she said.

The KwaZulu-Natal proposal was not in jeopardy, contrary to earlier media reports, Mokalatsie said. "At this stage, we have not been told that we can't go on with our programmes.

"The narrow media focus has obscured the process. The grants have been combined, we will be sharing the Global Fund money from a larger piece of cake, we have not been fighting," he added.

Mokalatsie noted that the government would not distribute the funds in a "one size fits all" manner across the country, but each region's circumstances would be looked at.

KwaZulu-Natal has the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in the country, with 36 percent of its population estimated to be infected with the virus

In April the Global Fund approved a US $72 million grant to the province, which would allow for a range of care-oriented services for people living with HIV/AIDS, while South Africa received US $93 million for national programmes.

The government last month controversially tried to block the province's grant, stating that the application did not go through the national government before being submitted to the Fund as specified in the application guidelines.

President Thabo Mbeki last week criticised the Fund for approving the KwaZulu-Natal grant despite it not having received clearance from the central government, as stipulated in the Fund's rules.

"The national government was simply correcting the irregularities. It is a poor reflection on us if we are seen to be flouting the rules," Mokalatsie said.