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The head of the FW de Klerk Foundation has written to US President Donald Trump urging his administration to separate its diplomatic disagreements from foreign assistance and reconsider its decision to terminate HIV funding to South Africa.Late last week it emerged the Trump administration had decided to end support to South Africa by the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar), citing a “failure to make demonstrable progress on policy requests,” according to Semafor. The report quotes a Senate aide saying Pepfar funding is to end because the South African government has not agreed to a series of US demands that include scrapping BEE policies, reducing ties with Iran and tackling the anti-apartheid song “Kill the Boer”. FW de Klerk Foundation CEO Christo van Rheede said the withdrawal of Pepfar infrastructure would disrupt life-saving health programmes for millions of innocent people caught in a geopolitical crossfire. “We urge your administration to shift its approach away from polarising ultimatums and towards constructive, bilateral pressure that encourages the South African government to grow its mutual economy, strengthen the rule of law and address the universal challenges affecting our entire population,” wrote Van Rheede.South Africa has the world’s biggest HIV burden, with 8-million people living with the disease. While the majority of public sector HIV services are funded by the government, the scale of the country’s epidemic means donor funding has historically played an important role. Pepfar has provided more than $8bn to South Africa over the past 20 years. The health department’s spokesperson, Foster Mohale, said the US government had yet to formally notify South Africa of its decision, but it was not unexpected. Details of the wind-down are expected to be discussed at a meeting between health minister Aaron Motsoaledi and the US ambassador to South Africa, Leo Brent Bozell III, he said. The meeting was originally planned for last week, but was postponed and has yet to be rescheduled, he said. In a statement issued at the weekend, the department assured HIV-positive patients that their medicine supplies were unaffected by the latest developments, as Pepfar had not provided funding for HIV treatment. About 90% of funding for HIV treatment provided by state facilities comes from the government, with the remainder from the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria.The department had been working on a plan to minimise the impact of the US withdrawal of funding since Trump cancelled grants channelled through the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in February 2025, it said.We urge your administration to shift its approach away from polarising ultimatums and towards constructive, bilateral pressure that encourages the South African government to grow its mutual economy, strengthen the rule of law and address the universal challenges affecting our entire population.— FW de Klerk Foundation CEO Christo van RheedeOne of Trump’s first acts after he was inaugurated for a second term was to realign foreign aid under a new “America first” strategy. His administration reduced foreign aid for health, withdrew from the World Health Organisation, and dismantled USAID, which had been the conduit for about half the Pepfar funding provided to countries hard-hit by HIV. The rest of the Pepfar funding was routed via the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. The Trump administration then moved to negotiate bilateral health agreements with countries that had been the recipients of US aid. By early June, more than 30 agreements had been signed, most of them in Africa.
