MASERU-THE National Aids Commission (NAC) is failing to deliver on its mandate, with programmes hampered by a crippling lack of funds despite Lesotho being one of the countries worst affected by HIV/AIDS in the world.
The commission’s budget is barely enough to cover salaries, rent and electricity, said Fako Moshoeshoe, chairman of the Parliamentary Social Cluster.
Moshoeshoe was speaking at the launch of the National Working Group of the SADC Parliamentary Forum on Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHS)’s HIV and AIDS governance project on Tuesday.
Moshoeshoe raised concern over the redundancy of the NAC, saying it is senseless for the country to keep paying salaries to people who cannot perform their duties to deliver on the government’s goals regarding the fight against HIV/AIDS.
“It means we are paying people for not doing anything, we really need to address this,” Moshoeshoe said. NAC is a department under the prime minister’s office.
Lesotho is currently ranked second in HIV/AIDS prevalence globally and HIV/AIDS remains the biggest sustainable human development challenge in the country.
Poverty and unemployment have contributed immensely to the increase of HIV/AIDS cases in the country.
The summit heard that the reduction of new infections, especially among young adolescent girls and women has been slow.
The failure by NAC to function fully threatens Lesotho’s ability to meet the 90-90-90 target.
The target refers to the hope that 90% of people who are HIV infected will be diagnosed, 90% of people who are diagnosed will be on antiretroviral treatment and 90% of those who receive antiretrovirals will be virally suppressed by 2020.
According to Moshoeshoe, the target will remain a pipedream if NAC is not adequately resourced.
“It is such a disgrace that the biggest body initiated to coordinate issues of HIV/AIDS in the country is not given enough funds,” Moshoeshoe said.
Keratile Thabana, the NAC Director, confirmed that the body does not have funds dedicated to its programmes as a coordinating body.
Thabana said the budget had been cut and all NAC activities were put on hold for two years.
Thabana said the M5 million given to NAC during this financial year is inadequate to cover all 10 districts.
She said NAC has communicated its predicament to the parliamentary social cluster committee, laying before the committee all the challenges faced by the body but no help has been forthcoming.
“Simply put, there is no money for us to run our programmes,” Thabana said.
Moshoeshoe said Lesotho has a commitment to international organisations and development partners to accelerate the fight against HIV/AIDS, strengthen SRHR and gender issues. However, such commitments will be difficult to meet if NAC and the HIV/AIDS programmes it runs are neglected.
“Imagine how we are embarrassed in front of nations when we, number two in prevalence in the world, are doing nothing to support programmes that will help in fighting the pandemic,” Moshoeshoe said.
Teboho Mohlabi, the NAC communication and advocacy manager, said the organisation often has to rely on donors such as UNAIDS, UNFPA, Global Fund and others to fund some programmes due to lack of government funding.
“We cannot even bring in new staff because the money is not even enough for the existing staff,” Mohlabi said.
“We will send our grievances to the committee,” he said.
Rose Moremoholo
