US to cut PEPFAR HIV funding to South Africa, cites Afrikaner protection claims
The United States announced it will end parts of PEPFAR funding for South Africa, saying Pretoria has not done enough to protect the Afrikaner minority and initiating a phased drawdown of PEPFAR programs, State Department officials said. PEPFAR had been supporting South Africa with roughly $400 million a year until 2025 and has provided about $8 billion to the country since the program’s founding, while South Africa has about 8 million people living with HIV. South African officials say they are working to finance HIV care domestically, but PEPFAR accounted for roughly 20 percent of some health-program funding and supported drug delivery and prevention services in hard-to-reach areas. Ending the U.S. role risks disrupting treatment access, increasing transmissions, and reversing decades of international gains against HIV in the country.
