The Citizen reports that Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi confirmed on Thursday that more than 8,000 healthcare workers in SA lost their jobs following the withdrawal of United States (US) funding for HIV/Aids programmes.
The job losses came as a direct result of US President Donald Trump’s January 2025 announcement of withdrawal of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Pepfar) funding for SA’s HIV/Aids and TB programmes. At a media update, Motsoaledi addressed the impact of the funding cuts while countering claims that the country’s HIV response had collapsed. Despite the significant job losses, the health minister emphasised that the vast majority of the HIV/Aids workforce remained intact and operational across affected districts. “In these 27 districts, there were 271,606 people who are working on the HIV/Aids programmes every day. 15,539 of these were funded by Pepfar, of which, yes, we can confirm today, unfortunately, 8,061 are out of their jobs,” Motsoaledi indicated. He went on to report: “The remaining 7,478 people are still employed because they are funded through Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, at least until September this year. So they are still on the job and doing their work as they were normally doing.” Motsoaledi emphasised that despite the recent funding cuts from Pepfar, SA still maintained a substantial HIV/Aids workforce, with 263,354 healthcare workers continuing to deliver critical services in previously Pepfar-funded districts. He said those citizens previously supported under Pepfar had been absorbed into public clinics and continued to receive uninterrupted treatment.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Enkosi Selane at The Citizen
- Read too, Motsoaledi lashes media, says SA’s HIV/Aids programmes are not collapsing, at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page