Issued by: GCIS
17 July 2002
A meeting was held at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital in Durban between the Minister of Health, Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and the MEC for Health in KwaZulu-Natal, Dr Zweli Mkhize, together with senior officials from the provincial Department of Health and senior staff of the University of Natal Medical School.
The meeting was the final consultation in a series of discussions between the National and Provincial Departments of Health on the grant that was made by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM) to the KwaZulu-Natal province.
It was agreed that in spite of the fact that KwaZulu-Natal did not follow the correct procedures and guidelines in submitting its proposal to the GFATM, South Africa welcomes and accepts the grant of approximately R600 million that was awarded to strengthen the response to HIV infection and AIDS. It was acknowledged, however, that the province took this route because the application process had not been clarified by the GFATM and the timeframe for the call for proposals was extremely short.
All parties affirmed the important leadership, advocacy and coordinating role of the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC), which represents true partnership between government, business and civil society, as the only country coordinating mechanism on the GFATM in South Africa.
It was also confirmed that there is no separate coordinating mechanism for the Global Fund in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.
It was agreed that all the resources that have been awarded to South Africa by GFATM would be pooled together under SANAC umbrella and coordinating framework.
The GFATM resources would be utilized in a manner that will benefit all the provinces of South Africa equitably and within programmes that were contained in the proposals submitted to the GFATM.
The funds will be received and disbursed through SANAC, the Country Coordinating Mechanism in South Africa. SANAC will also be responsible for monitoring programme implementation and reporting to the GFATM on progress and financial expenditure.
It was agreed to establish a technical task team under the SANC umbrella which would liaise with all relevant stakeholders and work out the technical and administrative details for receiving and allocating resources and monitoring programme implementation.
This statement should lay to rest all unfounded allegations about divisions between the National Department of Health and KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health about the grants that were made by the GFATM and mischievous rumours that South Africa is in danger of losing the money that was allocated to the country by GFATM.