Department of Health To Provide HIV Patients With ARVs for 6 Months After Donald Trump Cut Aid

• The Department of Health announced that it plans on giving HIV patients Antiretrovirals for six months, reducing the number of visits to the clinic
• The contingency is part of the department’s steps to ease the impact of US President Donald Trump's decision to halt HIV/AIDS funding to South Africa
• Netizens praised the government and called on it to prioritize South Africans in distributing the ARVs
• Jayshri Rangasamy spoke to Briefly News about the possible consequences of Trump cutting funding to SA

Tebogo Mokwena, a dedicated Briefly News current affairs journalist, contributed coverage of international and local social issues like health, corruption, education, unemployment, labour, service delivery protests and immigration in South Africa during his seven years at Daily Sun and Vutivi Business News.

JOHANNESBURG– The Department of Health is planning on cutting HIV patients’ hospital visits to twice a year by giving them Antiretrovirals (ARVs) for six months. This came after United States President Donald Trump announced that he would cut HIV/AIDS funding to South Africa.

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ARVs twice a year: Department

According to SABC News, the Department of Health is working on a contingency plan to mitigate the impact of Trump's order to cut funding for South Africa's HIV programmes. Trump cut the funding, accusing the South African government of committing human rights violations after President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Expropriation Act into law.

Centres which depended on funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have shut down. This is despite the United States Constitutional Court freezing Trump's order to block funding to South Africa.

Trump's soured relations with SA

Trump's decision to cut aid to South Africa came after President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Expropriation Act into law. Trump accused the government of using the law to seize farmland belonging to Afrikaners. Trump's stance can be traced to 2018 when he tweeted that he asked his former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, to investigate alleged large-scale farm killings and land seizures.

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What you need to know about Trump's order

• Trump rescinded the order and temporarily permitted his administration to provide funding to South Africa
• However, he signed an Executive Order reinstating his ban and extending refugee status to Afrikaners, accusing the South African government of persecuting them
• Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said representatives from the US government wanted to meet him shortly after Trump announced that he would cut funding

HIV/AIDS scourge in South Africa

South Africa boasts a national HIV prevalence rate of 18.8 per cent among adults aged 15-49. This has earned the country the status of having the highest absolute number of people living with HIV in the world.

According to the United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) estimates, about 7.7 million adults aged 15 and over were living with HIV in South Africa in 2023.

Women aged 15 and over living with the virus constituted 4.9 million people, while men aged 15 and over made up 2.6 million of the total number.

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This showed that women and girls continued to be disproportionately affected by the epidemic. There were about 160,000 children aged 0 to 14 living with HIV in the same year, while at least 1.3 million people became newly infected.

This has ensured the country boasts the world's largest HIV treatment programme but, disastrously, many people who start treatment stop taking it.

Jayshri Rangasamy speaks to Briefly News about the impact

Jayshri Rangasamy told Briefly News that the funding cut would have severely negative impacts on the economy.

"Although only 27 out of 52 districts in South Africa will be impacted by the funding cut, the number of patients making up this portion will have devastating outcomes. In these individuals who may not be able to receive their medication, viral loads which were once managed with medication will now increase, meaning individuals will become more infections endangering the rest of the population as well as their own lives," she said.

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South Africans weigh in

Netizens commenting on SABC News’s Facebook page called on the government to prioritize South Africans in its contingency plan.

Msojaer Mulaudzi said:

“And it must be given to South Africans.”

Finish Peace said:

“The remaining must be for South Africans.”

Philip Sibanda said:

“This is a serious matter for all African countries not to depend on one country.”

Songi MakaSiba Joseph said:

“Put South Africans first.”

Thabisile Simosemvelo Mabaso-Mlilo said:

“This will push the government to create a cure.”

SA purchases 90% of ARVs: Aaron Motsoaledi

In a related article, Briefly News reported that Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi clarified that the government procures 90% of its ARV treatment. He added that the remaining 10% is sourced from global funding.

Motsoedi spoke during a Cabinet Lekgotla briefing on 30 January 2025 and clarified that the government only receives a small portion of funding from the US. He said that the US’s funding supplied 27 out of the 52 districts of the country.

Source: Briefly News