Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
South African Press Association (Johannesburg) - July 25, 2002
The Global Fund's terms of reference require that it channel all money through national governments, although the money must go to the project it was awarded to and not to any other use, the DA said.
But Mbeki had a different impression of the fund's rules. He said that by making the grant to a province, and not acting through the national government, the fund had acted against its own rules.
The understanding was that the fund would liaise with a single disbursing entity, and that any payment from that entity would be the result of negotiations between a country and the fund.
Besides KwaZulu-Natal's allocation, the fund also awarded a sum of R930-million to South Africa nationally.
The national and provincial authorities had reached an agreement and as a result the funds awarded to KwaZulu-Natal would go to the national coffers, Mbeki said.
"We are not sure why the Global Health Fund acted in the matter outside its own terms of reference."
The DA said this "obstructionism" and Mbeki's emphasis on tuberculosis (TB) as a leading cause of death indicated that government had not changed its denialist position on HIV-Aids.
"The national government has not reversed its position on HIV-Aids... KwaZulu-Natal submitted its own proposal because of the incompetence and mismanagement of the national Minister of Health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. The national department dragged its feet to such an extent that it risked missing the deadline for funding proposals."
"As for Mbeki's emphasis on deaths by TB the fact is that often people die of TB because it is an opportunistic disease that feeds off depleted immune systems. President Mbeki must face up to this fact".
Mbeki said government was awaiting the final report on mortality statistics being compiled by Statistics SA and a number of government departments to formulate its health response, but that TB had superseded unnatural causes of death as the number one killer.
"That requires a direct health response."
Information was also necessary about the socio-economic environment that caused TB.
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