Inter Press Service - January 19, 2000
Lewis Machipisa

They say it is possible to raise funds through other means than a levy announced by Finance Minister, Herbert Murerwa, when he presented the 2000 budget in parliament last October.

They say the funds should be derived from direct government budget allocations and from cuts from defence spending. Funds can also come from a share of the proceeds of the sale of publicly listed companies and from a share of taxes on market and foreign exchange transactions.

The AIDS levy -- three percent deducted on payable income -- has met strong opposition from various sectors not convinced the money would be spent for addressing the plight of people living with AIDS.

With a raging war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where Zimbabwe has deployed 11,000 troops, the groups and taxpayers dismissed the levy as another attempt by the cash- strapped government to fund the conflict which is costing the Harare administration more than one million U.S. dollars a month.

However, Murerwa argues that the levy, which employers have begun deducting this month, will be used to buy low-cost generic drugs and in catering for the needs of AIDS orphans.

One in four sexually active adults in Zimbabwe is said to be carrying the virus that causes AIDS. The Ministry of Health says more than 1,000 people die every week from AIDS-related diseases in Zimbabwe, ranking the southern African among the worst hit by the HIV/AIDS scourge which is affecting 34 million people globally, 23 million of them in sub-Saharan Africa.

The lack of consultation with taxpayers, the buse and diversion of past levies, has prompted the groups to call for an agreed legally defined mechanism for the running of a fund, they have proposed, to curb the killer disease.

"This fund should be semi-autonomous, under a fund management board separate from the (government) AIDS Council, but receiving policy and programme priorities from the AIDS Council," the groups said in a statement Wednesday. "The management board for the fund should involve direct representation from the contributors and the beneficiaries to ensure public transparency in its use," the statement said.

The powerful Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), which is part of the organisations, only called off threats for mass protests against the levy last week.

While theld have died by the time a solution is found.

The need for resources to fight the epidemic is a huge one. A lot of funds are needed. Annually, every HIV infected person would need to pay about 12,000 U.S. dollars on medicines person.

Although the hardest hit continent, resources from Africa to deal with the disease are insignificant. For example, out of the 150 million dollars directed towards AIDS programmes in Africa in 1997, only 15 million dollars was from African resources.

That is grave for countries with high HIV prevalence, like Kenya and Zimbabwe. For example, UNAIDS estimates that by 2005, AIDS costs will represent more than half of the Kenyan government's health spending and nearly two-thirds of government health spending in Zimbabwe.(END/IPS/lm/mn/00) = TXACK lm/mn/00)
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