Cosatu: 'Aids money not spent'
2005-02-23 19:23
Johannesburg - The Congress of South African Trade Unions and the Treatment Action Campaign said on Wednesday they were disappointed by the failure of the minister of health to ensure that most of the R30m used to establish the government's Aids Trust in 2002 had not been spent.
They said only R520 000 of this money has been used - and of this a large portion had been squandered on unoccupied offices for the SANAC secretariat, something that has drawn criticism from the Auditor-General.
"One of the key purposes of the AIDS Trust is to fund the South African National Aids Council (SANAC), the body established as "the highest advisory body" to the minister of health and the Cabinet on HIV/Aids policy and implementation of programmes in South Africa," the organisations said in a
joint statement.
The failure to spend the money, and the waste of over half a million rand, was a reflection of the fact that SANAC was not functioning properly, they stated.
"Meetings are held sporadically and when they do occur, it is alleged by sector representatives that the minister of health opposes and obstructs important issues from being put on the agenda or discussed properly. For example the Operational Plan for Comprehensive HIV/Aids Treatment, Care and Support, released on 19 November 2003 is now far behind its original
targets, yet no discussion on the Plan or why this is the case has taken place at SANAC.
"It has been our experience that civil society and labour
representatives on SANAC are not properly consulted, and suffer from last minute cancellation of meetings. So far SANAC has not created a space for quality debate, discussion or proper engagement of critical Aids-related matters as a partnership.
TAC and COSATU call on Cabinet to ensure the SA Aids Trust money is spent immediately and appropriately with the purpose of enabling SANAC to fulfill its duties.
"We are particularly concerned about the failure to spend the Aids Trust money in the face of mounting evidence of the devastation being caused by this epidemic. The publication of the Statistics South Africa report on mortality last week once more confirms beyond doubt that South Africa has a massive Aids epidemic. South Africa's best epidemiologists estimate that
over 800 people are dying each day of Aids. We cannot afford the
dysfunctionality of structures such as SANAC which have been established to alleviate the epidemic. Genuine partnership and commitment from all in our society is needed now more than ever," the statement said.