South African aid agencies benefitting financially from US funding have been given a lifeline after a waiver was signed allowing the resumption of lifesaving services in the country.
There are 112 South African recipients that receive funding in the form of contracts, grants, loans or financial assistance, according to USAspending.gov.
Of the 112, financial figures were only available for 14 entities.
Included on the list are; the South African National Aids Trust, South African Medical Research Council, Standard Bank and Deloitte South Africa.
Last week, President Donald Trump announced a freeze on funding to SA in the wake of President Cyril Ramaphosa signing the Land Expropriation bill into law.
Trump committed to cutting funding to SA until an investigation into the Land Expropriation Act was complete.
However, US State Secretary Marcus Runio signed a limited conditional waiver to restart Pepfar-funded projects. These projects can continue to run until at least the end of April 2025.
Reports indicate that Pepfar has committed nearly R8 billion for projects running from October 2024 to September 2025.
The Institute for Security Studies noted that last year, under Pepfar, the US donated R8.5bn in direct funding to South Africa.
Services covered under the waiver
According to the US Embassy, life-saving HIV care and treatment services, inclusive of HIV testing and counselling, prevention and treatment of opportunistic infections including Tuberculosis, laboratory services, and procurement and supply chain for commodities/medicines as well as prevention of mother-to-child transmission services, inclusive of commodities/test kits, medicines and PrEP for pregnant and breastfeeding women.
"Reasonable implementing agency and implementing partner administrative costs strictly necessary to deliver and provide oversight of this assistance, including related country-based data activities and portions of PEPFAR’s central data platform used for clinical monitoring and program management are also covered," the Embassy said.