KZN Minister upbeat about UN AIDS donation

KwaZulu-Natal Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize says he is not aware of anything that might jeopardise the province from obtaining a R600-million donation from the UN Global Fund for Malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS.

He was commenting on media reports on Friday which stated that national Minister of Health Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang was using bureaucratic red tape to prevent KwaZulu-Natal - the province worst affected by the HIV/AIDS crisis - from accepting the money.

The reports said the province had not followed proper procedure in its application to the Global Fund.

A spokesperson for the national Minister dismissed allegations that her office was trying to block the fund.

However, she said the province should have gone through the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) before the application for funding went to the country co-ordinating mechanism.

Mkhize said on Friday it was true that proper procedures had not been followed and the application had not been submitted to SANAC before it was sent to the Global Fund.

However, he said, this matter was receiving his highest attention and plans to resolve the issue were in place.

The Treatment Action Campaign said in a statement in Barcelona, Spain, where the 14th World AIDS Conference was being held, that it could go to court to bring an urgent application which would force the province to accept the money.

Meanwhile, Pan Africanist Congress MP Patricia de Lille on Friday criticised the absence of South African parliamentarians at the AIDS Conference, saying they needed to get beyond wearing red ribbons and burning candles to taking an active part in these conferences.