‘Corruption allegations about USAID funding in SA unfounded’

The USAID flag flies outside the USAID building in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 1, 2025

3 minutes

Director of the Ezintsha Research Centre and HIV Clinician, Francois Venter, says accusations of corruption in United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funding programmes in the country are unfounded.

Earlier this week, Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi announced that government enlisted auditing firm, Deloitte and Touche, to investigate the administration of USAID.

Last month, US President Donald Trump halted funding for 90 days pending a review of the programmes.

“I don’t know where this accusation comes from. Firstly, my organisation does not receive this funding, but I watch from a distance and for instance in central Johannesburg where we operate, services have completely collapsed which were supported by USAID. So, when they talk about efficiencies, it doesn’t get less efficient than having a service completely collapse. So, when the minister says there’s corruption, I find it difficult to believe. The US government is so paranoid about corruption that they audit everything again and again. This is the first time I’ve ever heard even a whisper about corruption,” says Venter.

Consequences of the ban

Meanwhile, Universities South Africa (USAf) has called on their American research partners to lobby against the ban of foreign aid to critical research.

USAf says the decision to halt international aid will deal a devastating blow to the life-saving work of medical research.

USAf, a body representing 26 public universities says HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis, are no longer a death sentence due to the research work funded by USAID.

CEO of Universities South Africa, Phethiwe Matutu, says, “We were able to ascertain the causality of the spread of HIV and the type of people we were dealing with. Remember, we had to come up with all types of policies, the circumcision policies where we were trying to get young men circumcised. Those are the results of the research which was done. Young girls and the sugar daddy phenomenon, the results there. People who are sex workers and the spread of HIV coming up with gels to protect them.”

Matutu says research partnerships with the USA allowed for the funding of applied and experimental research as well as the roll-out of treatment.

Meanwhile, Professor Salim Abdool-Karim, Director of the Centre for the AIDS Programme Research in South Africa, says critical HIV/AIDS research programmes relying on donor funds from USAID have already been affected in the country.

Withdrawal of USAID already impacting HIV research | Abdool-Karim: